! 


t    1  i 


aiiil  if 


QO 


•^r 


,,,A    i,>A-^ 


_-:       i       »  ^  , —         — .       J       J  ?  r-n' 


^OF-CALIF0%^      ^OFCAIIFO%^ 


-— .    •^ 


r? 


.5?' 


.■\WE-UNIVER% 
<ri]33NVS01^ 


.^\^EUNIVERy//i 


-3*  <2> 


1^1 

^AaVtiiiii-#'      '^Auvuuii^'         <f:?13DNVS01^ 


^ 


-i^- 


•'S 


^WtlINIVER%       ^10SANCEI%         ^H' 


oa  t 


^ 


^^\ 


VERT//:.,        ..,\-lOS-ANCElf.rA  ,,^yZk\sm.i 


%:: 


i^- 


■^•smmm^     %ji3AiNii-3WV' 


:S' 


^  .^ 


# 


rip;!?Ai>v/?/ 


U-l 

3 


ATni^PAPYQr 


.\^E-l'NIYEf?5'/A 


^A 


'A' 


:^ 


^' 


^ 


[ijj.a-:iui' ' 


.-> 


/).^         ,,o,u\^: 


'^< 


■3 


VOCATIONAL    GUIDANCE 
FOR  THE  PROFESSIONS 


OTHER  VOCATIONAL 
GUIDANCE  BOOKS 

J.  Adams  Puffer,  Editor 

VOCATIONAL   GUIDANCE 
—THE    TEACHER   AS  A 
COUNSELOR 

By  J.  Adams  Puffer 

A   VOCATIONAL  READER 
By  Park  Pressey 

VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 
FOR  GIRLS 

By  Marguerite  Stockman  Dickson 
[In  preparation.] 


•T/yV* 


VOCATIONAL   GUIDANCE 
FOR  THE  PROFESSIONS 


By 
EDWIN   TENNEY  BREWSTER 

Author  of  "  The  Life  and  Letters  of  Josiah  Dwight  Whitney," 

"  The  Child's  Guide  to  Living  Things,^'  "  The 

Nutrition  of  a  Household,"  etc. 


350^4 


RAND      McNALLY     &      COMPANY 

Chicago  New  York 


Copyright,  1917 
By  Edwin  Tenney  Brewster 


5  i^  \ 


t 


r  . 


THE   CONTENTS 

PAGE 

A  List  of  the  Portraits (^ 

The  Introduction 7 

The  Preface 9 

THE    GENERAL   QUESTION 

CHAPTER 

I.  What  Is  a  Profession? 13 

II.  The  Professional  Type 17 

III.  The  Rewards  of  the  Professions 21 

THE    PERSONAL    PROBLEM 

IV.  The  Call  to  a  Profession       .      .      .      .      .      .      .26 

V.  Professional  Life  in  Fancy  and  in  Fact  .      .      .30 

VI.  Taking  Account  of  Stock 36 

VII.  The  Duty  of  Self-Analysis 41 

VIII.  The  Family  Tree  and  Its  Fruit 49 

THE    PARTICULAR    PROFESSION 

IX.  Law 59 

X.  The  Ministry 75 

XI.  Teaching 89 

XII.  The  Medic.\l  Group loi 

XIII.  The  Scientific  Group 123 

XIV.  Engineering  and  Invention 141 

XV.  Agriculture 153 

XVI.  Literature  and  Journalism 163 

XVII.  The  Fine  Arts 177 

XVIII.  Professional  Fitness  and  the  "Unit  Character"  188 

XIX.  Professional  Qu.\lity  and  Its  Amount  ....  200 

5 


A  LIST  OF  THE  PORTRAITS 

PAGE 

Benjamin  Franklin Frontispiece 

John  Quincy  Adams 54 

Samuel  Adams 52 

Louis  Agassiz 138 

Louisa  M.  Alcott 170 

Charles  Knowles  Bolton '•      -174 

Luther  Burhank 131 

Peter  Cartwright 83 

Samuel  Langhorne  Clemens 164 

G rover  Cleveland 5° 

Charles  R.  Darwin 28 

Clarence  Eddy 185 

Thomas  A.  Edison 14° 

Daniel  C.  French 180 

Edwin  Lawrence  Godkin 168 

William  C.  Gorgas 23 

Wilfred  T.  Gr  en  jell 84 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 106 

David  Starr  Jordan 9° 

Clarence  King 122 

Rudyard  Kipling 172 

A  braham  Lincoln 58 

.1  bbott  Lawrence  Loivell 20 

Alice  Freeman  Palmer 99 

William  Stephen  Rainsjord 80 

Theodore  Roosevelt 4° 

Ernest  Thompson  Seton 128 

Robert  Louis  Stevenson 47 

William  Warren 178 

Daniel  Webster 64 


THE   INTRODUCTION 

NO  ONE  who  knows  the  present  crowded  conditions 
of  the  professions — crowded  to  the  injury  of  the 
profession  and  society — doubts  the  wisdom  of  more 
careful  counseling  of  the  young  men  and  women  who 
are  considering  or  will  consider  a  profession  as  a  life 
career.  The  success  of  our  democracy  depends  much 
upon  our  leaders.  Professional  men  are  leaders  and 
therefore  become  widely  destructive  or  genuinely  con- 
structive in  social  welfare. 

Vocational  guidance,  if  it  is  to  be  of  any  value,  must 
be  based  on  facts;  and  the  facts  can  be  obtained  by  a 
careful  survey  of  the  vocations.  With  a  few  exceptions 
sons  must  fill  the  places  vacated  by  their  fathers.  There 
must  always  be  a  fair  adjustment  between  supply  and 
demand.  Disregarding  this  fundamental  law,  our  schools 
are  pushing  two  or  three  times  too  many  young  men 
toward  the  professions  already  overcrowded.  The  results 
are  disastrous  to  the  misguided  youth. 

Every  parent  and  teacher  who  knows  the  present 
antipathy  to  manual  labor,  and  the  false  enthusiasm 
for  white-collar  jobs  and  the  professions,  should  make  a 
very  careful  investigation  of  the  reasons  for  the  choice 
of  the  professional  career  by  a  son  or  pupil.  Every  youth 
should  be  led  also  to  make  a  very  careful  examination 
and  take  account  of  stock — to  see  whether  his  decision 
is  based  on  social  influences  or  on  real  ability. 

Mr.  Brewster's  book  will  be  read  with  interest  by 
parents,  teachers,  and  social  workers,  and  by  the  pupils 
in  our  high  schools  and  colleges.  All  who  read  will  be 
led  to  consider  carefully  the  choice  of  a  profession,  and 

7 


8  The  Introduction 

many  will  be  led  to  reconsider  carefully.  Mr.  Brewster 
has  stated  the  facts  in  so  clear  and  unprejudiced  a  manner 
that  young  men  of  real  ability  and  moral  integrity  will 
find  encouragement  and  wise  coimsel. 

J.  Adams  Puffer 

Boston,  Massachusetts 


THE   PREFACE 

THE  vocational  guide,  or  the  writer  of  a  \ocational 
guidebook,  faces  a  somewhat  peculiar  situation  in 
dealing  with  the  professions.  His  human  raw  material 
is  a  group  of  boys  and  girls  of  exceptionally  high  quality, 
who  are  well  able  to  see  for  themseh^es  all  the  more 
ob\ious  matters  with  which  a  vocational  counselor  has 
usually  to  deal.  No  mere  catalogue  of  requirements, 
o])portunities,  wages,  and  conditions  of  labor  is  of  inuch 
use  to  youth  who  arc  headed  for  the  higher  ]3rofessional 
schools.  vSuch  persons  need  a  compass,  not  a  map ; 
to  be  oriented  rather  than  steered. 

I  have  therefore  touched  lighth-  on  several  matters 
which  are  commonly  treated  at  some  length,  and  in  their 
place  have  laid  special  emphasis  on  the  psychology  of  the 
various  professional  groups.  This  topic  I  have  considered 
somewhat  fully  in  case  of  the  vocations  earliest  taken 
up,  but  more  sketchily  for  the  rest,  with  the  idea  of  stimu- 
lating the  adolescent  reader  to  think  out  his  own  case 
for  himself  —  since,  always,  my  aim  is  to  be  suggestive 
rather  than  dogmatic.  Such  questions,  however,  as 
appear  to  have  been  slighted  in  the  present  text  \vill  in 
each  case,  I  think,  be  found  handled  adequately  in  some 
other  volume  of  the  series.  For  the  fact  is  that  there  is 
so  much  that  may  be  said  concerning  each  several  group 
of  vocations  which  also  may  be  equally  well  said  of 
most  of  the  others,  that  it  were  vain  repetition  to  say  it 
each  time.  In  particular,  the  pedagogical  side  of  the 
general  subject  has  been  dealt  with  in  the  initial  book, 
Vocational  Guidance —  The  Teacher  as  a  Counselor;  and 
to  this  I  refer  the  reader  who  is  also  a  teacher. 


10  The  Preface 

To  the  general  body  of  my  friends  of  the  professional 
group  —  lawyers,  doctors,  nurses,  engineers,  teachers, 
artists  —  I  am  indebted  for  the  subject-matter  of  the 
book:  a  multitude  far  beyond  any  specific  mention, 
but  to   whom,   hereby,   my  thanks. 

E.  T.  B. 

Andover,  Massachusetts 


THE   GENERAL   QUESTION 


•«\«SJ*BSl^>"*r,. 


The  Halliday  Historic  Photograph  Co. 

Benjamin  Franklin  —  Printer 

"The  many-sided  Franklin"  had  the  ideal  professional  mind,  and 
was  probably  the  ablest  man  ever  a  citizen  of  the  United  States.  He 
was  artisan,  business  man,  scholar,  athlete,  inventor,  man  of  science, 
statesman,  diplomat,  lay  preacher,  administrator,  author.  In  several 
different  fields,  he  was  among  the  foremost  men  of  his  day,  and  he 
could  probably  have  won  high  success  in  almost  any  profession  which 
he  cared  to  undertake.  Yet  he  came  of  a  non-professional  stock,  and 
was  self-educated. 


VOCATIONAL   GUIDANCE 
FOR  THE  PROFESSIONS 

CHAPTER   I  Cft-G."^ 

What  Is  a  Profession? 

WE  SHALL  have  to  admit  at  the  outset  that  there 
is  no  hard-and-fast  hne  to  be  drawn  between  the 
professions  and  other  sorts  of  vocations.  Common  usage 
reckons  the  bookkeeper  to  be  "in  business"  ■ — unless  he 
happens  to  be  a  most  uncommonly  good  bookkeeper; 
in  which  case,  we  call  him  an  expert  accountant  and 
rate  him  as  a  professional  man.  Bookkeeping,  then,  is 
a  profession  at  the  top  and  a  business  everywhere  else. 
Yet  who  can  say  where  the  professional  head  leaves  off 
and  the  business  neck  begins? 

Teaching  also  is  a  profession  at  the  top.  The  higher 
ranks  of  teachers  are  not  especially  different,  in  standing 
or  in  income,  from  accountants.  But  teaching  is  a  pro- 
fession clear  through  to  the  bottom.  The  grade  teacher 
or  the  kindergartner  is  a  professional  woman,  though  her 
sister  who  keeps  books,  after  an  equal  training  and  at 
twice  the  wage,  is  not. 

Acting  is  a  profession.  The  sorriest  barnstormer, 
tramping  the  ties  toward  New  York,  considers  himself  a 
professional  man  and  an  artist.  But  the  baseball  player 
is  master  only  of  a  trade,  though  he  learns  his  trade  in  the 
first  university  of  the  land  and  has  the  salary  of  two  or 
three  college  presidents.  No  degree  of  proficiency  ever 
lifts  the  professional  athlete  into  the  ranks  of  professional 
men.  ^\ 

13 


Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 


Brown  Bros. 


Non- professional  work.     Finishing  the  coats  to  women's  suits. 
These  people  are  doing  a  particular  task  in  a  practical, 
rule-of-thutnb  ivay  and  are  clearly  on  the  non- 
professional side  of  the  line 

All  this,  though  a  trifle  illogical,  is  practically  con- 
venient. It  would  indeed  be  a  rash  man  who  should 
attempt  to  coin  a  definition  of  electrical  engineer  which 
would  cut  off  all  practical  electricians,  or  say  where  the 
draftsman  leaves  off  and  the  architect  begins.  And  yet 
we  all  feel  that  however  much  various  of  the  modem 
trades  may  flower  out  into  professions,  any  particular 
man  or  woman  is  pretty  clearly  on  one  side  of  the  line 
or  the  other.  As  a  rule,  after  one  finishes  the  grammar- 
school  course,  he  spends  two,  three,  or  four  years  in 
mastering  the  practical,  rule-of-thimib  way  to  do  some 
particular  task,  and  then  keeps  on  doing  it  in  the  same 
way  for  the  rest  of  his  days.  Or  else  one  goes  a  great 
deal  farther,  gets  much  of  his  knowledge  out  of  bopks, 
and  continues  a  student  all  his  Hfe.  In  other  words,  he 
enters  a  profession. 


What  Is  a  Profession? 


15 


.  The  special  characteristics  of  the  professions  are, 
therefore,  these:  They  all  require  a  somewhat  long  and 
arduous  training  before  earning  power  begins.  In 
certain  cases  this  training  is  prolonged  even  to  five  or 
six  years  beyond  college  graduation.  In  all  cases  the 
professional  education  includes  much  that  has  little 
immediate  bearing  on  practical  duties.  Promotion  is 
characteristically  slow,  and  high  earning  power  usually 
comes  only  with  the  approach  of  middle  age.  More- 
over, unlike  the  business  man,  the  professional  man  does 
not  make  or  buy  or  sell  any  material  object,  or  make  a 
profit  on  the  labor  of  persons  to  whom  he  pays  wages. 
His  earnings  are  salary  or  fees,  not  profits.  He  is,  then, 
essentially  a  wage  earner.     But  he  differs  from  other 


Brown  Bros. 

Professional  work.     Teaching  is  a  profession  clear  through  from 

top  to  bottom  -ivhether  the  work  is  carried  on  in  a  university 

or  ivhether  it  is  limited  to  conducting  a  gymnastic 

class  in  the  lower  grades 


i6  Vocational  Guidance  Jar  the  Professions 

wage  earners  in  selling  his  experience,  judgment,  advice, 
or  ideas,  instead  of  selling  his  strength  of  body,  his  skill 
of  hand,  or  merely  his  time. 

Clearly,  then,  "the  professions"  is  simply  a  convenient 
term  for  a  somewhat  wide  group  of  vocations  which  have 
a  good  deal  in  common  with  one  another,  yet  share  also 
the  characteristics  of  many  occuj^ations  which  are  not 
professions.  Few  artisans,  for  example,  have  the  manual 
skill  of  most  surgeons  or  of  many  laboratory  workers. 
Banking  and  book  jjublishing  are  almost  as  much 
professions  as  forms  of  business.  Musical  skill  runs 
in  unbroken  series  from  the  base-drum  player  in  the 
band  who  belongs  to  the  musicians'  union  to  Kreisler 
and  Paderewski. 

Nevertheless,  common  usage  has  settled  it  that  certain 
vocations  are  professions,  and  the  rest  are  not.  Usage 
shall,  then,  be  our  guide. 


CHAPTER  II 
The  Professioxal  Type 

THERE  is  no  professional  t\-pc.  Every  possible  kind 
of  inan  or  woman,  every  possible  combination  of 
human  qualities,  finds  its  place  somewhere  in  the  pro- 
fessional ranks.  There  are  all  sorts  of  people  inside  the 
professions,  as  there  are  all  sorts  outside. 

Indeed,  each  particular  ]3rofession  does  more  or  less 
match  some  non-profession  in  the  kind  of  person  whom 
it  attracts.  Paderewski  and  our  base-drum  player  are 
both  musicians;  the  pianist  is  simply  a  vastly  better  one. 
The  same  man  who  finds  out  what  is  the  matter  with  our 
plumbing  and  cures  it,  would,  if  he  had  more  ability  of  the 
same  sort,  be  able  to  find  out  what  is  the  matter  with 
our  digestion  and  cure  that.  The  salesman  who  guides 
us  wisely  in  the  choice  of  a  hat  or  persuades  us  into  buying 
a  necktie  we  do  not  want,  is  realh'  the  same  sort  of  man 
as  the  lawyer  who  steers  us  through  the  mazes  of  the 
statutes,  or  convinces  the  jury  that  his  rascally  client  is 
a  wronged  and  innocent  man. 

In  other  words,  the  professional  man  is  like  other  wage 
earners  —  onh'  he  has  more  brains,  energy,  perseverance, 
insight,  independence,  imagination.  He  is  not  a  different 
sort  of  man,  but  a  better  man  of  the  saine  sort.  Sign 
painter  and  artist,  stonecutter  and  sculptor,  maid-of-all- 
work  and  teacher  of  domestic  science  —  each  professional 
member  of  a  pair  is  the  non-professional  "writ  large." 
If  the  other  had  more  abilit>'  of  the  same  kind,  and  the 
training  to  go  with  it,  he,  too,  would  be  in  a  profession. 

Business,  also,  in  its  higher  ranks,  takes  in  men  who  have 

2  17 


i8 


Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 


nothing  more  than  the  common  quaHties  or  the  special 
gifts  of  the  inconspicuous  and  underpaid,  but  merely 
have  these  in  greater  measure.  There,  is,  therefore,  no 
real  difference  between  the  kind  of  man  who  succeeds  in 
business  and  the  kind  of  man  who  succeeds  in  a  profession. 
There  are  probably  few  good  business  men  who  would  not, 
if  they  had  started  in  time,  have  done  well  also  at  some  one 
of  the  professions .  There  is  probably  no  profession  some  of 
whose  members  have  not  shown  high  capacity  for  business. 
And  yet,  as  one  looks  about  the  world,  one  does  notice 
a  certain  general  difference  between  the  business  and  the 
professional  type.  We  think  of  the  business  man  as 
alert,  aggressive,  able  to  handle  men,  especially  inter- 
ested in  details ;  we  think  of  the  professional  man  as  more 
cautious,  more  scholarly,  able  to  handle  books,  and 
especially  interested  in  general  ideas.  The  difference  is 
not  at  all  a  constant  one.     The  distinction,  in  these  days, 


a« 

T\ 

> 

■   "^w 

^""iSh—. 

I.       tH'              ^ 

« 

^  1.4. 

ftS^^^P*^'      ' 

v 

P          "Fm,^^^ 

MHm 

^.-  :11! 

.' 

■1  • 

22-24-26W,3g 

8W| 

Sign  painting.     Art  below  the  professional  level 


Brown  Bros 


I 


The  Professional  Type 


19 


All  artist's  studio.     Art  on  the  projcssional  Level  "'"""  ^™'- 

probably  fails  more  often  than  it  holds  good.  Yet  it 
is  not  a  point  to  be  ignored  altogether  by  any  youth  who 
is  in  doubt  on  which  side  of  the  line  between  business  and 
the  professions  he  himself  belongs. 

Except,  then,  for  this  vague  difference,  which  so  far  as 
it  exists  at  all  is  more  a  matter  of  temperament  than  of 
intellect,  there  is  no  professional  type  of  man  or  woman. 
One  does  not  say:  This  boy  or  this  girl  is  predestined 
to  a  profession;  let  us  discover  which.  Rather  one  says: 
This  boy  or  this  girl  is  predestined  to  this  kind  of  work; 
let  us  see  whether  it  is  to  be  done  on  the  professional  or 
the  non-professional  level. 

In  other  words,  entrance  into  the  professional  group  is 
decided  not  by  the  kind  of  ability  but  by  the  amount. 
Any  boy  or  girl  who  finds  professional  work  attractive 
may  be  sure  of  having  the  right  kind  of  talent  for  success 
somewhere.     The  only  question  is:  Has  he  enough' 


Abbott  Lawrence  Lowell  —  President  of  Harvard  University 

By  training  a  lawyer  and  later  a  successful  teacher  of  the  law, 
he  remains  essentially  an  administrator.  The  portrait  is  that  of  an 
efficient  business  man  who  might  equally  as  well  be  president  of  a 
railway  or  a  bank  as  of  a  university. 


CHAPTER  III 

The  Rewards  of  the  Professions 

THERE  is  no  standard  of  payment  for  the  professions. 
Ask  the  wages  of  a  carpenter  or  a  cash  girl,  and  you 
will  be  told  pretty  accurately — so  much  per  hour,  so  much 
per  week,  such  and  such  a  rise  with  experience.  More- 
over, the  general  run  of  wages  in  a  handicraft  or  business 
position  does  not  \'ary  much  in  different  parts  of  the 
country.  It  is  doubtful  if  any  artisan  or  clerk  in  the  land 
could  double  his  wages  by  a  mere  change  of  residence. 

But  professional  earnings  may  be  anything.  The 
average  salary-  of  public-school  teachers  in  certain  of  our 
states  is  more  than  eight  times  that  in  others.  Half 
the  lawyers  in  the  countr>'  do  not  make  even  a  bare  living 
out  of  the  law  alone;  but  there  is  a  small  group  whose 
earnings  run  to  six  figures.  This  physician  charges  his 
office  patients  one  dollar  a  visit;  that  one  charges  five,  and 
sees  twice  as  man\'  in  a  da\'.  The  same  artist,  singing 
the  same  role,  may  be  paid  ten  times  as  much  in  New 
York  as  in  Paris.  Professional  incomes  are  like  business 
profits — there  is  no  standard.  A  man  makes  much  or 
little,  as  he  can. 

The  one  obvious  fact  is  that  professional  men,  grade 
for  grade,  earn  less  than  business  men.  If  the  highest 
yearly  incomes  of  the  professions  touch  six  figures,  those 
of  the  most  successful  business  men  are  nearer  seven. 
The  presidents  of  our  greater  universities,  though  they 
count  as  teachers,  are  all  really  business  managers. 
Virtually  every  one  of  them  coiild  become  the  head  of  a 
laisiness  plant  at  three  times  the  income  he  is  now  getting. 

21 


22  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

Probably  nine  men  out  of  ten  who  leave  the  professions 
for  business  better  themselves  by  the  change. 

Nor  is  there  much  relation  in  the  professions  between 
eminence  and  income.  A  successful  lawyer  waits  until 
his  children  are  grown  u])  and  off  his  hands,  and  then 
accepts  a  promotion  to  the  bench,  at  half  or  a  third  the 
returns  of  his  office  work.  One  physician  may  build  u]) 
a  large,  fashionable  practice  and  grow  rich,  but  without 
being  known  outside  his  town.  Another  may  devote 
himself  to  research,  take  only  just  enough  paid  practice 
to  boil  the  family  pot,  do  all  his  best  work  for  nothing 
for  the  sake  of  running  down  some  obscure  disease, 
and  be  famous  the  world  over.  Milton  and  Shakespeare 
hardly  made  a  living  out  of  their  writings;  but  who  re- 
calls even  the  name  of  the  author  of  last  year's  "best 
seller,"  which  ran  to  a  hundred  thousand  in  the  first 
month  ? 

No,  the  rewards  of  the  professions  are  not  money. 
Most  successful  men  and  women  in  the  professional 
group  would  have  had  to  do  less  work  in  a  lifetime,  and 
been  better  paid  for  it,  if  they  had  taken  up  some  form  of 
business;  most  unsuccessful  persons  could  not  have  done 
worse  no  matter  what  they  tried. 

One  takes  up  a  profession  not  for  what  he  can  get  out 
of  it,  but  for  what  he  can  put  in.  For  him  who  loves  his 
work,  that  itself  is  its  own  best  reward;  and  professional 
work  offers  more  of  interest  and  variety,  and  less  of 
drudgery  and  monotony,  than  any  other  sort  of  employ- 
ment, unless  perhaps  it  be  certain  uncommon  forms 
of  business.  If  the  professional  man,  as  Agassiz  said 
of  himself,  has  "no  time  to  make  money,"  his  chance 
of  congenial  work,  of  social  position,  of  reputation,  of 
liberty,  of  contact  with  the  things  of  the  mind  and  of 
service  to  the  world,  is  usuallv  verv  much  better  than 


Copyrighted  by  Clincdinst.  Washington.  D.  C. 

Major-General,  Surgeon-General  William  C.  Gorgas,  U.S.A. 
The  fame  of  his  achieveme^its  in  Havana  and  Panama  in  the  service 
of  his  country  is  world-wide.     But  his  monetary  reward  was  simply 
that  accorded  to  one  of  his  rank  in  the   United  States  Army. 


24  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

any  non-professional  \'-ocation  would  bring  him.  It  is 
for  each  person  to  decide  in  which  fonn  he  \vill  take 
his  pay. 

Any  youth,  therefore,  who  finds  himself  attracted 
toward  any  one  of  the  professions  must  face  this  issue 
squarel}-:  If  he  enters  and  succeeds,  he  will  have  to 
work  harder  and  longer,  and  have  less  money  to  show 
for  it,  than  if  he  had  gone  into  business.  If  he  enters 
and  fails,  he  will  have  less  than  if  he  had  learned  a  trade. 
But  whether  he  succeeds  or  fails,  if  he  loves  his  work  he 
will  have  pemianent  satisfactions  which  no  money  can 
buy,  and  a  joy  in  his  labor  such  as  he  will  find  nowhere 
else.  After  all,  as  the  proverb  says,  one  cannot  eat  his 
cake  and  ha\-e  it  too. 


THE   PERSONAL   PROBLEM 


s 


CHAPTER  IV 
The  Call  to  a  Profession 

INCE  the  highest  reward  of  professional  Hfe  is  not  j 
money    but  the  fundamental  interest  of  the   work/ 
itself,  one  needs  to  be  especially  careful  to  pick  just  that 
work  which  he  does  most  of  all  care  to  do.     "Business'" 
is  business"  in  more  senses  than  one.     We  can  decide  to 
"go  into  business,"  and  afterward  pick  out  our  special 
field.     After  we  have  started  on  one  business,  we  may 
change  to  another.      Men  often  do,   many  times.      The 
man  who  does  well  at  one  business  would  probably  have 
done  about  equally  well  at  any  one  of  a  dozen  others,  and 
been  equally  well  satisfied  in  the  end. 

It  is  not  so  with  the  professions.  One  must  choose 
whether  he  will  be  a  physician  or  an  opera  singer;  and 
by  the  time  he  has  gone  through  the  long  training  needed 
to  make  him  either,  it  is  commonly  too  late  to  change 
his  mind  and  become  the  other.  Men  take  their  profes- 
sions "for  better  for  worse,"  as  they  do  not  take  most 
other  vocations. 

One  must,  then,  be  especially  sure  that  he  is  right  before 
he  goes  ahead.  There  are  a  few  fortunate  boys  and  girls 
who  early  make  up  their  minds  as  to  what  they  are  to 
do,  and  stick  to  it.  While  still  in  the  grammar  school, 
a  boy  decides,  let  us  say,  on  the  law,  a  girl  pitches  upon 
nursing,  and  the  entire  education  is  built  around  that 
idea.  Edison,  for  example,  was  an  electrician  from  boy- 
hood, and  never  really  anything  else.  Louisa  Alcott 
began  writing  as  a  child.  Such  choices  are  often  as  wise 
as  they  are  convenient. 

26 


The  Call  to  a  Profession  27 

But  they  are  uncommon.  Most  of  us  ha\'e  to  feel  our 
way  along.  On  the  whole,  professional  life  looks  attrac- 
tive. A  profession  runs  in  the  family,  or  certain  people 
whom  we  especially  admire  happen  to  be  professional 
men  or  women.  But  we  have  no  specific  call.  Any  one 
of  two  or  three  professions  appears  desirable,  and  we  feel 
that  we  could  succeed  in  one  about  as  well  as  in  another. 

Probably  we  are  right.  As  we  shall  see  later  more  in 
detail,  the  various  professions  much  overlap  in  the  native 
qualities  which  they  demand.  The  great  violinist  would 
probably  have  been  about  equally  eminent  if  he  had  taken 
up  the  piano.  Many  clerg>Tnen  would  have  done  as  well 
as  schoolmasters  or  college  professors.  Many  physicians 
would  have  made  good  men  of  science  or  engineers. 
Provided  only  a  youth  has  enough  ability  to  enter  a 
profession  at  all,  he  can  commonly  choose  which  one 
of  several  it  shall  be. 

One  has  only  to  read  over  the  biographies  of  eminent 
men  and  women  to  see  how  commonly  they  have  felt 
their  way  along  from  one  possibiHty  to  another,  until  they 
finally  came  to  their  proper  work.  Holmes,  Agassiz,  and 
Huxley  all  planned  to  practice  medicine,  and  then  switched 
off  and  became  anatomists.  Darwin  intended  to  enter 
the  ministry.  Priestley  and  Mendel  actually  did  become 
clergymen,  and  carried  on  the  scientific  work  which  made 
them  famous  as  the  avocation  of  their  leisure  hours.  The 
two  Whitney  brothers,  Josiah  D wight  and  William 
D wight,  each  interested  the  other  in  his  own  future  work 
until  each,  as  a  young  man,  changed  to  the  field  of  the 
other,  and  became  one  of  the  foremost  men  of  his  time 
in  the  profession  which  his  brother  had  expected  to  enter. 
Few  professional  men  have  heard  one  distinct  call  to  their 
work  and  from  the  beginning  marched  straight  toward 
their  goal. 


j^^F 

„  "^^^^^^H 

^^g 

^^^^^^Ltffi^i^k 

Mjj^^H 

Bbfll 

H^HH| 

^^^^I^K'        •!^'ftgsMm^^B|BBipBB^B^BB[^^m 

^^  ^ 

'^m^ 

^H     1 

vj^^jjiifijiiinr^H^^^^^^^^B^^^^^^^^^^^^^^B 

BBLmmmJ 

Charles  Robert  Darwin 

The  great  Darwin,  who  came  of  eminent  professional  stock,  was  first 
educated  for  the  ministry;  but  he  found  his  proper  professional  work 
and  achieved  his  greatness  in  the  field  of  natural  science. 


The  Call  to  a  Profession  29 

Most  boys  and  girls,  therefore,  when  they  find  them- 
selves attracted  toward  any  profession,  will  do  well  to 
look  over  the  field  pretty  widely  and  to  note  all  the  pos- 
sibilities within  their  range.  Much  will,  of  course,  be 
clearly  outside.  Then  (i;radually,  as  they  come  to  learn 
more  concerning  their  possible  vocations,  and  as  their 
own  quality-  develops  and  becomes  more  and  more  evi- 
dent, they  can  shut  off  one  blind  lead  after  another,  and 
narrow  down  to  the  final  choice.  In  fact,  one  of  the 
main  objects  of  this  book  is  to  assist  just  this  sur\'ey  of 
the  whole  field  within  the  range  of  a  possible  choice,  and 
to  point  out  just  why,  for  one  youth  or  another,  such  and 
such  an  opening  is  "no  thoroughfare." 

The  time  for  this  general  surve}^  of  the  professional 
field  is  during  the  high-school  course.  One  is  then  at 
the  time  of  life  when  the  type  of  his  intellect  and  the  main 
elements  of  his  character  have  already  revealed  them- 
selves. He  already  knows  that  there  are  certain  things 
which  he  cannot  possibly  do.  At  the  same  time,  the 
details  of  mind  and  will  are  not  yet  fixed.  One  can  decide 
what  he  wants  to  be,  and  to  some  extent  make  himself 
over  to  fit  his  pattern.  Most  boys  and  girls  who  have 
not  already  decided  on  a  life  work  before  they  enter  the 
liigh  school,  do  so  during  their  course. 

In  general,  then,  during  the  four  years  of  high-school 
work  most  young  people  will  have  to  make  up  their 
minds  whether  or  no  they  care  to  enter  any  profession. 
Those  who  find  that  they  do,  ought  by  the  time  they 
graduate  to  ha\'e  narrowed  down  their  preferences  to 
fewer  than  half  a  dozen  different  possibilities,  and  to 
have  shaped  their  studies  accordingly.  Those  who  do 
not  go  on  to  college  will  commonly  have  made  the  final 
choice. 


CHAPTER   V 

Professional  Life  in  Fancy  and  in  Fact 

SUPPOSE,  now,  that  some  particular  profession  looks 
attractive  to  a  boy  or  girl,  or  that  any  one  of  a  half 
dozen  seems  possible  or  promising.  How  shall  one  find 
out  which  he  really  wants,  or  if  he  really  wants  any? 
There  is  only  one  answer:  He  must  study,  at  first  hand, 
the  actual  daily  routine  work  of  an  average  successful 
practitioner,  and  find  out  for  himself  exactly  what  he 
himself  will  have  to  do  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 

There  is  a  deal  of  false  glamour  about  the  professions. 
Many  a  girl  who  aspires  to  be  a  nurse  pictures  herself, 
slender  and  trig  in  her  uniform,  acting  as  ministering 
angel  —  the  reader  can  complete  the  picture  for  himself. 
Nursing  actually  means  being  on  one's  feet  all  day,  going 
short  of  sleep  by  night,  and  keeping  one's  temper  all  the 
time,  while  she  washes,  dresses,  feeds,  and  makes  com- 
fortable a  commonplace  invalid  made  unreasonable  by 
pain. 

The  lawyer  does  not  commonly  stand  like  Daniel 
Webster  in  the  engraving,  while  judge,  jury,  reporters, 
and  innocent  accused  hang  on  his  words,  or  the  guilty 
tremble  under  his  eye.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  hardly  one 
lawyer  in  ten  goes  into  court  when  he  can  stay  out ;  while 
the  routine  office  work  of  looking  up  statutes  and  decisions 
is  about  as  exciting  as  finding  words  in  a  dictionary. 
Professional  life  is  good  to  live,  but  for  very  different 
reasons  than  the  outside  public  thinks. 

Frank  Parsons,  who  was  the  first  to  make  a  regular 
business  of  helping  boys  and  girls  to  find  their  proper 

30 


Professional  Life  in  Fancy  and  in  Fact  ji 

place  in  the  world's  work,  tells  this  story  of  an  experience 
of  his  own  with  a  youth  who  entertained  the  somewhat 
common  delusions: 

"A  boy  of  nineteen  said  he  wanted  to  be  a  doctor. 
He  was  sickly  looking,  small,  thin,  hollow-cheeked,  with 
listless  eye  and  expressionless  face.  He  did  not  smile 
once  during  the  interview  of  more  than  an  hour.  He 
shook  hands  Hke  a  wet  stick.  His  voice  was  husky  and 
unpleasant,  and  his  conversational  powers,  aside  from 
answering  direct  questions,  seemed  practically  limited 
to  'ss-uh.'   .    .    . 

"He  had  been  through  the  grammar  school  and  the 
evening  high;  was  not  good  in  any  of  his  studies,  nor 
especially  interested  in  any.  His  memory  was  poor. 
He  failed  on  all  the  tests  for  mental  power.  He  had 
read  practically  nothing  outside  of  school  except  the 
newspapers.  He  had  no  resources  and  few  friends.  He 
was  not  tidy  in  his  appearance,  nor  in  any  way  attractive. 
He  knew  nothing  about  a  doctor's  life;  not  even  that 
he  might  have  to  get  up  at  any  time  in  the  middle  of  the 
night,  or  that  he  had  to  remember  books  full  of  symptoms 
and  remedies. 

"The  boy  had  no  enthusiasms,  interests,  or  ambitions 
—  except  the  one  consuming  ambition  to  be  something 
that  people  would  respect.  And  he  thought  he  could 
accomplish  that  purpose  b}^  becoming  a  physician  more 
easily  than  in  any  other  way." 

In  other  words,  the  reasons  why  the  lad  wished  to 
enter  the  profession  were  precisely  the  reasons  why  he 
should  have  wanted  to  keep  out. 

Most  certainly,  no  one  should  ever  take  up  any  profes- 
sion thinking  that  he  "\\'ill  not  have  to  do  any  work." 
To  be  sure,  it  does  look  easy  to  sit  in  a  comfortable  office 
chair,  chatting  pleasantly  with  one  caller  after  another, 


J2  \'ocaiioiial  (inidancc  for  the  Professions 

with  no  fixed  hours  of  labor  except  those  which  one  sets 
himself.  But  there  are  long  hours  of  brain-racking  toil 
when  the  public  is  not  by,  and  the  very  fact  that  there 
are  no  fixed  hours  of  labor  deprives  one  also  of  all  fixed 
leisure.  For  professional  persons  there  are  neither  union 
hours  nor  lousiness  da)'.  Most  of  them  simply  work  all 
the  time  there  is.  Twelve,  fourteen,  even  sixteen  hours 
a  da>'  ha\-e  sometimes  to  be  maintained  for  weeks  at  a 
time. 

There  is  probabh'  no  human  occupation  where  the  con- 
trast between  appearance  and  realit\'  is  greater  than  in 
teaching.  "Phew!"  says  the  outsider,  "two  months' 
clear  vacation  in  the  summer  I  Odd  weeks  along  through 
the  year  I  Fi-\'e  hours'  work  a  da>'  —  and  that  mere 
holding  a  book  to  see  if  what  the  pupil  says  agrees  with 
the  printing." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  more  women  break  down  at 
teaching  than  at  any  other  occupation,  except  possibly 
nursing.  The  long  vacations,  contrary  to  general  opinion, 
exist  for  the  instructor,  not  for  the  pupil,  who  could  well, 
for  the  most  part,  continue  his  not  very  strenuous  mental 
exercise  twelve  months  in  the  year.  Teaching  is  such 
very  hard  work  that  the  stronger  private  schools  com- 
monl}'  expect  their  instructors  to  handle  only  three 
classes  a  day,  while  the  great  universities  liinit  their  men 
to  one  or  two,  and  give  them  three  months'  vacation  ever\- 
summer  and  one  entire  year  off  in  each  seven.  Even 
then  the  men  break  down.  Such  is  the  contrast  between 
I^rofessional  ^^^ork  as  it  appears  to  the  outsider  and  as  it 
really  is. 

What  makes  professional  life  so  "pmiishing"  is  not 
so  much  the  long  hours  as  the  responsibility.  It  is 
notorious  that  engineers  of  passenger  locomotives,  who 
also  take  heavy  responsibility,  sometimes  go  to  pieces 


J4  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

nervousl>'  and  have  to  go  back  to  freight  trains,  though 
theirs  is  only  the  simple  task  of  keeping  on  the  track  and 
on  time. 

When  the  plumber  sets  up  a  joint,  and  the  joint  leaks, 
he  merely  takes  it  down  again  (on  our  time)  and  does 
the  job  over  until  he  gets  it  right.  But  the  physician  who 
treats  his  patient  for  common  sore  throat  when  he  should 
have  discovered  the  beginnings  of  diphtheria  cannot  go 
back  and  try  again.  The  patient  is  dead;  the  physician's 
repute  has  suffered  beyond  repair.  When  the  engineer 
gives  his  opinion  on  a  mine,  that  hole  in  the  ground  must 
"make  good."  If  it  does  not,  nobody  is  going  to 
listen  to  any  explanations.  Many  a  good  schoolmaster 
has  lost  his  place  through  a  single  error  of  judgment  in  a 
case  of  discipline. 

In  the  professions,  moreover,  there  are  no  such  "sport- 
ing chances"  as  in  business.  The  business  man  expects 
losses.  He  is  satisfied  if  he  guesses  right  oftener  than  he 
guesses  wrong.  But  the  preacher  cannot  defend  a  thin 
sermon  by  saying  that  after  all  more  people  stayed  in  than 
went  out;  nor  can  the  lawyer  balance  off  the  innocent 
client  who  was  hanged  against  the  rascal  who  escaped. 
As  a  famous  teacher  of  engineering  used  to  tell  his  stu- 
dents, "Your  work  is  not  done  until  you  can  stake  your 
life  on  the  accuracy  of  your  figures." 

It  is  this  demand  for  certainty  that  makes  professional 
life  hard.  "If  you  sue,  you  will  be  beaten,"  says  the 
legal  adviser.  "I  can't  find  anything  the  matter  with 
you,"  says  the  consultant.  "Your  water  supply  is  now 
free  from  typhoid,"  says  the  bacteriologist.  And  client, 
or  patient,  or  municipality  gladly  pays  the  cost  of  a 
laborer's  wages  for  a  month.  It  looks  like  "finding 
money,"  but  making  the  opinion  worth  paying  for  is 
what  earns  the  fee. 


Professional  Lijc  in  Fancy  and  in  Fact  jj 

The  would-be  professional  man  or  woman  must,  there- 
fore, get  behind  the  scenes  and  see  just  what  his  future 
work  is  actually  going  to  be.  Let  him  keep  his  eyes  open 
for  hints.  Let  him  make  acquaintances  in  his  chosen 
field,  and  see  just  what  really  goes  into  the  day's  work. 
Let  him  read,  not  imaginary  tales,  but  the  professional 
journals  and  the  biographies  of  professional  people.  Best 
of  all,  let  him  arrange  to  be  born  in  a  professional  family, 
and  see  the  life  on  the  inside  from  his  youth  up. 


CHAPTER    VI 
Taking  Account  of  Stock 

SUPPOvSE,  then,  one  has  decided  that,  on  the  whole, 
professional  Hfe  looks  more  attractive  than  any 
other  possible  career,  and  has  narrowed  his  preferences 
down  to  two  or  three  of  the  most  promising.  vSupposc 
also  that  this  opinion  is  based  on  a  real  knowledge  of 
what  the  profession  really  is,  not  merely  on  what  it  is 
imagined  to  be.  The  next  step  is  to  find  out  the  actual 
facts  concerning  the  boy  or  girl  who  hopes  to  fit  into  the 
l^rofcssional  niche. 

P'irst  of  all,  unfortunately,  must  come  the  question  of 
resources.  Most  of  the  professions  demand  a  preliminary 
training  which  is  not  only  long  but  expensive.  It  is 
said  to  cost  ten  thousand  dollars  to  make  a  physician. 
He  does  not,  to  be  sure,  have  to  pay  it  all  himself,  spot 
cash.  But  with  fees  and  li\ing,  and  the  loss  of  earnings 
until  he  is  past  thirty,  he  really  does  not  get  out  of  his 
training  for  much  less.  In  other  words,  the  candidate 
for  certain  professions  will  have  to  stake  at  least  five 
thousand  dollars  on  his  final  success 

Various  other  professions  offer  shorter  odds.  The  educa- 
tional wind  is  distinctly  tempered  to  the  clergxartan.  A 
nurse  in  training,  though  she  wall  be  worked  mercilessly. 
can  nearly  meet  her  cost  of  living.  Some  teachers  get 
on  with  two  years  at  a  normal  school.  All  these  things 
have  to  be  faced,  and  planned  for  in  advance 

Then,  after  the  preparation  is  over,  comes  oftentimes 
the  long  wait  for  something  to  do.  This  also  varies 
greatly  in  different  professions.     Young  men  are  rather 

36 


Taking  Account  of  Stock  jy 

in  demand  in  teachinj^^  and  in  the  ministry,  since  in  both 
they  have  to  deal  much  with  yomig  people.  Many 
school  s}'stems,  however,  hire  no  teachers  who  have  not 
already  taught  one  or  two  \'ears;  while  nobody  wants  to 
employ  either  a  physician  or  a  lawyer  who  has  not  first 
won  experience  by  practicing  on  somebody  else. 

All  this  may  make  the  start  slow.  One  must  count 
the  cost  of  a  year  or  two  of  possible  idleness,  or  the  cer- 
tainty of  slack  work  at  the  beginning  of  his  career. 

On  top  of  all  this  comes  the  chance  of  failure  in  the 
end.  The  professions  are,  for  the  most  part,  desperately 
overcrowded.  Competition  is  even  fiercer  than  in  busi- 
ness, and  only  the  best  men  win. 

There  arc  in  the  United  States,  in  proportion  to  the 
population,  between  four  and  li\'e  times  as  many  physi- 
cians as  in  Gemian}'  —  and  the  Germans  are  not  com- 
plaining of  any  lack  of  medical  oversight.  We  have  at 
least  three  times  as  man}^  lawyers  as  we  need,  so  that 
only  about  one  in  four  actually  makes  his  living  out  of 
the  law  alone.  New  York  City  alone  has  more  lawyers 
than  all  France. 

The  result  is  that  the  average  professional  man  in  this 
country,  ten  years  or  inore  past  the  end  of  his  nomial 
training,  is  not  making  more  than  fifteen  hundred  dollars 
a  >'ear.  More  than  this,  at  least  one  person  in  e\'ery 
two  who  attempts  to  crowd  into  a  profession — in  certain 
cases  as  many  as  nine  out  of  every  ten — fails  completely 
and  has  to  turn  to  something  else. 

Practically,  then,  entrance  upon  a  profession  resolves 
itself  into  this:  The  candidate  risks  from  one  to  ten 
thousand  dollars  and  from  two  to  ten  years  of  his  life. 
At  best,  he  has  an  even  chance  of  success;  at  the  worst, 
the  odds  against  him  are  ten  to  one.  If  he  wins,  the 
average  value  of  his  prize  is  fifteen  hundred  dollars  a  >'ear. 


JS 


Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 


A  graduating  class  of  medical  students.     This  profession  is  enormously 

overcroivdcd.     At  best  each-  graduate  has  an  even  chalice: 

at  the  worst  the  odds  against  him  are  ten  to  one 

Part  of  the  risk  in  the  professional  lottery  comes  from 
the  fact  that  in  so  many  cases  the  probationer  who  misses 
his  jump  has  nothing  to  fall  on.  One  entering  business 
begins  at  the  bottom,  and  works  up  as  far  as  he  can. 
There  is  always  some  level  where  he  is  useful.  If  he 
cannot  handle  a  big  business,  he  may  succeed  with  a  little 
one. 

But  the  girl  who  lacks  scholarship  to  teach  forty  pupils 
in  a  classroom  is  not  given  twenty  with  half  pay.  She 
simply  is  not  hired  at  all.  The  physician  who  is  not 
trusted  in  serious  cases  is  not  called  in  for  light  ailments. 
The  architect  who  finds  work  slack  at  the  customary  six 
per  cent  commission  cannot  increase  his  trade  by  coming 
down  to  five.  A  failure  at  a  profession  is,  therefore,  likely 
to  be  more  complete  than  at  other  vocations,  and  the  time 
and  money  spent  in  i^rcparation  more  nearly  thrown  away. 


Taking  Account  oj  Stock  jg 

Unless,  then,  one  has  a  better  than  common  chance  to 
"arrive"  in  a  profession,  it  is  better  not  to  try  at  all. 
The  stake  is  too  great  to  risk  on  any  slender  chance. 
Resources,  time,  the  cost  of  waiting,  the  chance  of  retreat 
in  case  of  failure,  must  all  be  weighed.  The  probable 
reward  of  success  ought  also  to  be  reckoned. 

But  after  all,  the  main  element  in  the  problem  is  the 
native  ability  of  the  youth  himself.  The  right  kind  of  boy 
or  girl,  headed  for  the  right  vocation,  is  pretty  certain 
to  come  through  to  the  goal.  A  rigid  and  honest  self- 
analysis  is,  therefore,  the  Ijasis  of  all  else.  One  cannot 
decide  on  a  career  until  one  knows  what  manner  of  man  or 
woman  one  is  going  to  be. 


Brown  Bros. 


Colonel  Roosevelt  on  His  African  Trip 

Capable  men  and  women  are  unhappy  ivhen  they  arc  idle.  When 
work  fails  or  they  need  recreation  they  choose  vigorous  activities,  mental 
or  physical;  they  hunt  lions  in  the  unlds  of  Africa,  they  explore  rivers 
in  the  untamed  'tropics,  they  urite  books,  they  go  for  a  fifty-mile  ride 
on  horseback,  they  solve  intricate  problems  in  mathematics,  they  do  atiy- 
thing  rather  than  be  idle. 


CHAPTER    VII 

The  Duty  of  Self-Analysis 

YOUTH  is  the  time  for  self-examination.  Children 
arc  especialh'  concerned  with  the  external  world 
into  which  they  have  been  suddenly  thrust,  and  take 
themselves  for  granted.  By  the  time  one  reaches  middle 
age,  one  has  usualh'  come  down  to  an  understanding  of 
himself  and  to  some  sort  of  \^•orking  compromise  with  his 
limitations.  But  from  twelve  or  fourteen  }'ears  of  age 
up  to,  let  us  say,  eighteen  or  twenty,  the  mind  normally 
turns  in  on  itself.  One  begins  consciously  to  measure 
himself  against  other  people;  to  note  the  things  he  can 
do  well, and  the  things  he  cannot  do  at  all;  and,  in  general, 
he  seeks  to  find  out  what  manner  of  being  it  is  that 
he  must  put  up  with  for  the  next  half  century.  Here 
is  the  normal  time  for  religious  conversion;  for,  pre- 
liminary, falling  in  lo^■e;  and  most  especially  for  locating 
one's  claim  in  the  world  of  affairs.  Much  of  this  adoles- 
cent introspection  is  more  or  less  unwholesome.  But 
since  all  of  it  is  inc\-itablc,  one  may  as  well  utilize  the 
instinctive  imjjulse  to  aid  his  vocational  choice. 

The  first  question  to  be  faced  is  this :  Am  I,  who  aspire 
to  professional  life,  really  up  to  the  professional  grade? 

Now  professional  men  and  women,  including  among 
the  latter  the  wives  of  professional  men,  are  distinctly 
a  picked  lot.  They  number  hardly  one  twentieth  of  the 
adult  population,  but  they  contribute  more  than  half 
the  leaders  in  every  communit}'.  One  has  only  to  look 
around  among  his  neighbors,  to  run  through  the  bio- 
graphical dictionaries  and  the  pages  of  Who's  WJio,  to 

41 


42  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

note  the  authors  of  any  Hst  of  books  or  the  table  of  con- 
tents of  any  important  magazine,  in  fact  to  apply  any 
test  that  may  occur  to  one,  from  listings  in  the  telephone 
book  to  membership  in  Congress,  to  see  that,  in  proportion 
to  their  numbers,  the  professional  classes  are  contributing 
from  ten  to  one  hundred  times  their  share  of  exceptionally 
efficient  and  useful  persons.  They  are  a  selected  group, 
the  survivors  of  several  times  their  number  who  have 
tried  for  their  places  and  failed,  and  of  many  times  more 
who  have  not  even  tried. 

The  first  prerequisite  for  the  life  is,  then,  brains. 
Unless  one  has  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  born  with  a 
certain  amount  of  ability,  for  him  the  case  is  closed.  No 
industry  or  influence  will  make  up  the  handicap. 

How  much  ])rains  does  it  take'  At  least  as  much  as 
to  graduate  from  a  good  high  school  and  be  ready  to  enter 
a  higher  institution.  Not  that  one  need  actually  gradu- 
ate. Really  able  youths  often  suffer  from  ill  health,  get 
too  much  interested  in  outside  matters,  take  a  dislike  to 
some  particular  subject  or  instructor,  and  so  miss.  But 
as  a  general  rule,  if  one  has  not  enough  brains  to  handle 
the  ordinary  high-school  subjects  with  moderate  ease — ■ 
when  he  really  tries  —  then  he  has  not  enough  brains  to 
succeed  in  any  profession,  and  he  might  as  well  quit  at 
the  start.  Most  professions  presuppose  a  quality  of 
mind  that  puts  a  boy  or  girl  well  into  the  first  third  of 
the  class. 

To  this  general  rule  there  are,  however,  two  very 
rare  exceptions.  There  are  a  few  cases  where  men 
who  afterwards  did  well  have  suffered  during  ado- 
lescence from  a  sort  of  brain-fog,  which  suddenly  cleared 
awa\'  toward  early  manhood  and  revealed  them  to  be 
thoroughly  capable  persons.  There  are  also  a  few  gifted 
individuals  with  such  highly  specialized  brains  that  they 


The  Duty  of  Self-Analysis  4J 

cannot  handle  subjects  which  He  at  the  opposite  ]3ole 
from  their  pecuHar  gifts.  One  of  the  eminent  scholars 
of  the  country,  one  may  fairly  say  of  the  world,  was 
beaten  by  his  high-school  mathematics!  But,  of  course, 
ho  showed  his  real  quality  by  leading  his  classes  in  every- 
thing else. 

In  other  words,  at  least  ninety-nine  times  in  a  hundred, 
the  professional  man  or  woman  is  tried  out  by  his  class 
standing.  The  crack  scholar  may  lack  other  necessary 
qualities  and  so  not  be  professional  timber.  But  the  boy 
or  girl  who  cannot  handle  most  high-school  studies  is 
surely  not  of  the  professional  class. 

In  certain  ways,  the  best  of  all  tests  for  profes- 
sional life  is  Latin.  Greek,  of  course,  may  be  equally 
good;  but  nobody  seems  to  study  Greek  any  more.  More 
than  any  other  ordinary  school  subject,  Latin  reproduces 
in  model  the  conditions  of  professional  work.  If  one 
"likes  Latin,"  if  one  enjoys  the  mere  mental  exercise  of 
thinking  clearly  on  an  uninteresting  subject,  and  loves 
a  piece  of  work  just  because  it  is  hard,  then  he  has  the 
professional  temperament.  Professional  labor  is  mostly 
getting  up  vastly  complicated  subjects  out  of  books,  and 
then  setting  the  material  in  order  till  every  fact  and 
opinion  and  judgment  is  ready  on  call.  Actual  profes- 
sional life  is  one  prolonged  recitation,  with  the  public 
demanding  "principal  parts."  Aspirants  to  the  profes- 
sions will,  therefore,  do  well  to  note  somewhat  carefully 
how  they  handle  their  high-school  Latin. 

There  could  not,  however,  be  a  greater  error  than  to 
confuse  the  ability  which  makes  the  professional  man  or 
woman  with  the  "brightness"  of  childhood.  Many 
eminent  men  have,  to  be  sure,  been  "bright"  infants; 
Macaulay  and  John  Stuart  Mill  are  especially  striking 
instances.     But,  in  general,   the  clever  child  is  merely 


44 


Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 


]Drecocious.  He  seems  able  simply  because  he  is  ,s;rowing 
old  fast,  as  a  \'ear-old  dog  is  vastly  wiser  than  a  human 
baby.  By  the  same  token,  lack  of  "smartness "  may  be  a 
good  sign.  The  child  is  maturing  slowly  and  will  sta>' 
\-oung  long.  Real  pennancnt  ability  may  show  ver\- 
N'oung,  or  it  may  not  begin  to  show  at  all  until  after  four- 
teen. Here  again  the  test  comes  only  with  the  high 
school. 

But  there  is  another  quality  besides  brains  which  is 
common  to  all  professional  people,  and  that  is  energy. 
Some  are  able  to  work  very  long  hours;  some  are  able  to 
])ush  on  at  high  speed;  but  one  and  all,  characteristically, 
they  are  able  to  turn  ofif  work. 

Now  this  ^^•ill  to  work  is  a  quality  that  belongs  to  all 
well-endowed  persons.  We  speak  of  savages  as  indolent, 
lazy.  The  average  man,  when  his  task  is  done,  sits  down 
and  waits  for  the  next  meal.     The  less-than-average  man 


Brown  Bros. 


A  loafer. 


The  less-than-averagc  man  frankly  loafs  when  there 
is  plenty  of  ivnrk  he  might  be  doing 


The  Duty  of  Self- Analysis 


45 


Hrown  Tirofl. 

Energetic  high-school  boys.     Native  energy,  quite  as  7uuch  as  in- 
tellectual gifts,  marks  the  able  child  and  indicates  future 
success  in  a  chosen  profession 

frankly  loafs  on  street  corner  or  in  grog  shop,  even  when 
there  is  plenty  of  work  that  he  might  be  doing.  Capable 
people,  on  the  other  hand,  are  unhappy  when  the\-  arc 
idle.  They  find  occupation  for  themselves;  and  when 
work  fails  they  pla\^  chess  or  climb  mountains. 

The  difference  in  temperament  shows  young.  Feeble- 
minded children  do  not  care  to  play.  Average  infants 
have  to  be  amused.  But  an  able  child  is  into  every  sort 
of  mischief  for  himself.  When  he  gets  older,  he  builds 
boats,  makes  collections,  learns  telegraphy,  takes  up  the 
vigorous  or  the  hard-thinking  games,  does  anything  rather 
than  be  idle. 

Since,  then,  the  professional  man  is  largely  his  own 
taskmaster,  sets  his  own  hours,  decides  for  himself  when 
he  has  done  a  day's  work,  he  needs  to  have  a  large  measure 


46  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

of  this  constitutional  energy  of  will.  Without  it,  he  will 
have  to  drive  himself  to  his  work  —  with  the  practical 
result  that  he  will  not  work  hard  enough  to  carry  him  very 
far.  Many  persons,  to  be  sure,  have  energy  who  lack 
"  bookishness " ;  but  native  energy,  quite  as  much  as 
intellectual  gifts,  marks  the  boy  or  girl  who  will  succeed 
in  the  professions. 

The  third  quality  which  marks  the  professional  group 
is  independence.  Most  of  us  are  slavish.  We  confomi 
to  the  fashion;  we  follow  the  crowd.  Consequently  we 
get  our  living  by  obeying  some  other  person's  orders, 
and  arc   paid   for  doing  as  we   are   told. 

But  the  professional  man  is  not  playing  any  ganie  of 
follow-the-leader.  His  day's  work  is  largely  to  fonn  a 
succession  of  independent  judgments  for  the  guidance  of 
other  people.  "This  tooth  will  not  stand  filling;  I  shall 
have  to  put  on  a  gold  cap."     "I  think  this  prescription 


Brown  Broa. 

A  bookish  boy.     Bookishness  does  not  necessarily  indicate  that  the 

boy  or  girl  is  marked  for  the  professions;  it  must  be  accompanied 

by  a  native  energy  and  the  quality  of  independence 


Tin-  Ilalliilay  Historic  I'hritosrrH[>h  (' 

Robert  Louis  Stevenson 


The  author  of  "Treasure  Island"  and  other  stories  of  adventure, 
and  one  of  the  foremost  of  contemporary  writers,  belonged  to  a  jamily 
of  engineers.  He  suffered  from  poor  health,  and  in  his  later  years 
kept  himself  alive  only  bv  living  on  a  tropic  isle  in  the  Pacific.  For 
this  reason,  he  could  hardly  have  succeeded  at  any  other  profession. 


4^  Vocational  Giiidaucc  jar  the  Professio)is 

will  straighten  you  out."  "That  water  supply  will  be 
sufficient  for  the  next  twenty  years."  "Under  these 
conditions,  the  best  material  is  brick" — these  are  largely 
what  we  pay  our  money  for.  The  man  who  cannot  stand 
on  his  own  legs,  make  up  his  mind  for  himself,  and  take 
the  responsibiUty  for  the  outcome,  has  small  place  in  the 
professional  ranks.  Who  docs  not  in  youth  show  some 
independence  of  character  had  better  find  a  vocation  where 
he  will  not  have  to  be  the  court  of  last  resort. 

In  other  words,  while  certain  professions  require  certain 
special  gifts  and  others  do  not,  they  all  require  a  somewhat 
uncommon  keenness  of  intellect,  energy  of  will,  and  inde- 
i:»endence  of  character.  No  one  who  does  not  during 
\-outh  exhibit  a  considerable  measure  of  all  three  has 
much  prospect  of  success. 

On  the  other  hand,  taking  the  professions  as  they  come, 
a  slender  physique  or  even  positive  ill  health  is  appreciably 
less  a  handicap  than  in  most  vocations.  Stevenson, 
Wagner,  George  Eliot,  Carlyle,  will  occur  at  once  as 
examples  of  persons  of  the  highest  eminence  who  could 
hardly  have  got  on  at  all  at  the  non-professional  indu.strics. 
Darwin  did  some  of  his  best  work  a  few  minutes  at  a  time, 
sitting  up  in  bed.  Parkman  was  nearh-  blind  during 
his  best  years.  Calvin  was  "faint,  thin,  and  consump- 
tive." The  members  of  no  other  group  are  so  well 
able  to  control  the  times  and  conditions  of  their  labor 
and  to  order  the  place  and  circumstances  of  their  lives. 
The  fact  that  a  professional  man  in  poor  health  can 
often  take  care  of  himself  as  he  could  not  in  another 
vocation,  may  sometimes  be  the  deciding  factor  in  a 
career.  Severe  as  most  of  the  professions  are  in  their 
demands  on  mind  and  character,  certain  of  them  do  tend 
to  be  distinctlv  easv  on  the  bodv. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

The  Family  Tree  and  Its  Fruit 

AFTER  all  is  said,  there  is  no  surer  way  to  discover 
■  \x\\a.t  sort  of  man  or  woman  a  boy  or  girl  is  going 
to  become  than  to  notice  what  sort  of  people  the  elders 
of  their  families  actually  are.  If,  in  spite  of  the  proverb, 
the  stream  does  sometimes  rise  above  its  source,  it  seldom 
does  so  very  far.  Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  do  children, 
except  rareh',  fall  much  below  the  family  level. 

Indeed,  it  has  been  seriously  proposed  that  in  exami- 
nations for  the  British  Civil  Service,  the  candidate,  in 
addition  to  his  answers  to  the  papers  set,  shall  be  credited 
also  with  the  actual  perfonnance  in  life  of  his  father,  all 
liis  uncles,  and  his  two  grandfathers.  There  does  not 
seem  to  be  much  question  that,  if  the  plan  could  be  made 
workable,  it  really  would  pick  a  better  lot  of  men  than 
I  he  palmers  alone.  The  examination  tells  what  the  young 
man  is  at  the  moment;  the  quality  of  the  men  of  his 
family  shows  what  he  will  probably  become. 

\\^henevcr,  therefore,  any  profession  runs  strongly  in 
a  familx'  the  chance  of  success  in  it  becomes  correspond- 
ingh-  high.  The  family  has  already  been  tried  out,  and 
the  odds  in  favor  of  success  for  any  child  are  much  greater 
than  for  any  unproved  stock.  "When  in  doubt,  try  the 
family  job"  is  a  safe  version  of  the  ancient  rule. 

Examples  of  hereditary  gifts  will  readily  occur.  The 
musical  genius  of  the  Bach  family  ran  through  eight 
generations  and  landed  fifty-seven  dififerent  persons  in 
the  biographical  dictionaries.  The  famous  Scotch  natu- 
ralist and  traveler,  Edward  Forbes,  had  one  brother  who 

4  49 


Grover  Clrveland 

This  eminent  statesman  is  a  member  of  a  family  that  has  held  its 
type  for  nearly  three  hundred  years. 


The  Family   Tree  and  Its  Fruit  ji 

was  a  mining  engineer  in  South  America,  lost  another  b\- 
accidental  death  in  North  America,  and  another  by  drown- 
ing in  Australia.  One  of  his  uncles  perished  in  Demerara, 
another  in  Surinam,  and  another  somewhere  in  Central 
Africa.  It  used  rather  to  excite  remark  when  a  man  of 
that  family  died  in  his  bed. 

The  two  Jonathan  Edwards  were  so  much  alike  that 
few  persons  know  that  they  were  not  the  same  man. 
The  father  of  the  elder  Jonathan  was  a  clergyman  and 
his  grandfather  a  lawyer,  both  eminent.  Three  of  his 
direct  descendants  were  presidents  of  Yale,  and  as  many 
more  of  other  institutions.  The  whole  Woolsey-Dwight- 
Sedgwick- Whitney  group,  probably  the  foremost  pro- 
fessional strain  in  the  country,  are  his  offspring.  To 
this  famil}'  belong  Aaron  Burr,  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  Grovcr 
Cleveland,  and  Robert  Treat  Paine,  signer  of  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence.  From  the  first  Robert  Treat 
Paine  descended,  in  successive  generations,  six  other 
Robert  Treat  Paines,  all  of  whom  were  graduated  from 
Harvard,  studied  law"  or  went  into  business,  and  became 
prominent  men  in  their  commvmities.  For  nearly  three 
hundred  years  the  family  has  held  its  type  like  a  race  of 
trotting  horses  or  milch  kine. 

But  perhaps  the  most  striking  illustration  of  the  way 
in  which  quality  runs  in  families  is  in  the  Presidents  of  the 
United  States.  Twenty-seven  different  persons  have  now 
held  the  office.  And  since,  at  each  election,  the  number 
theoretically  eligible  is  at  least  ten  million,  the  chance 
that  any  President  will  be  nearly  related  to  any  other, 
is,  at  most,  of  the  general  order  of  one  in  a  hundred 
thousand.  Yet  the  Adamses  were  father  and  son,  the 
Harrisons  grandfather  and  grandson,  while  Grant  and 
Cleveland  were  distant  cousins  and  both  related  to  Vice- 
president  Aaron   Burr.     In  other   words,    though  every 


A.  E.  CloavelaDd.  Photosraphor 


Samuel  Adams 

An  American  Revolutionary  statesman,  and  an  eminent  member  oj 
the  presidential  family  of  Adamses. 


The  Family   I'rcc  cuicl  lis  Fritii  jj 

American  boy  does  stand  some  chance  of  becominj^  Presi- 
dent, the  prospects  of  some  of  them  are  ten  or  twenty 
thousand  times  better  than  the  general  run. 

But  one  need  not  bother  with  biographies.  There  are 
plent}'  of  individuals  and  of  families  in  every  community 
to  prove  how  strongly  hereditary  is  ability  of  professional 
grade.  Indeed,  it  has  been  calculated^ — all  such  calcula- 
tions have,  of  course,  to  be  taken  with  some  grains  of 
salt  —  that  of  well-equipped  and  successful  professional 
men  al^out  one  half  come  from  professional  families. 
That  is  to  sa\',  their  people  are  either  in  the  professions 
or  else  are  merchants,  manufacturers,  bankers,  and  the 
like,  whose  business  is  on  an  equally  high  level. 

Now  this  group  of  "emerged  "  families  does  not  amount, 
in  general,  to  more  than  two  or  three  per  cent  of  the  whole 
number  in  any  countr}'.  Roughly,  then,  one  fortieth  of 
the  families  in  the  United  States  are  fm-nishing  half  the 
successful  professional  men.  The  other  half  is  drawn 
almost  entirely  from  the  families  of  business  men  in  a 
small  way,  clerks,  office  workers,  and  the  like,  and  from 
those  of  high-skilled  artisans.  This  group  of  families 
amounts  to  something  like  a  fifth  of  the  total  population. 
The  remaining  three  fourths  of  the  people  of  the  countr\- 
are  practically  negligible,  since  unskilled  and  low-skilled 
laborers  do  not  commonly  get  their  children  beyond  the 
grammar  school. 

But  farming  is  the  original  \^ocation  out  of  which  most 
of  the  rest  have  been  specialized.  Every  farmer  is,  there- 
fore, at  the  same  time  artisan,  capitalist,  business  man, 
professional  man,  and  day  laborer.  According  as  he  is 
more  or  less  of  one  or  the  other,  his  children  have  a  greater 
or  a  smaller  chance  to  succeed  in  the  professions. 

The  situation  is  in  many  ways  regrettable.  In  an  ideal 
state,  every  boy  in  the  land  wotild  have  an  equal  chance  to 


From  the  paiutine  by  John  SinEcIton  Copley,  loaned  by  Charles  Francia 

Adams.  Kmq.,  tij  the  Massarhusetts  Museum  of  Fine  Arts.  Boston 

John  Quincv  Adams  —  Sixth  President  of  the  United  States 

He  was  the  son  of  the  second  President,  John  Adams,  whom  he 
strikingly  resembled.  His  mother  also  was  eminent,  and  the  entire 
stock  down  to  the  present  day  has  maintained  a  high  level  of  ability. 
The  portrait  represents  him  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight  when  he  was 
United  States  Minister  at  The  Hague.  An  example  of  a  highly  suc- 
cessful person  who  is  only  an  average  sample  of  an  especially  able  stock. 


The  Family  Tree  and  Its  Fritil  jj 

become  President,  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  engineer 
of  the  Panama  Canal.  Here,  however,  we  are  concerned 
with  things  as  they  actually  are.  As  a  simple  matter  of 
fact,  educational  opportunity,  family  influence,  the  uncon- 
scious effect  of  early  surroundings,  the  native  abiUty 
which  in  the  course  of  generations  has  become  adjusted 


Brown  Bros. 

Children  of  well-to-do  families  have  more  than  an  even  chance 

to  a  certain  grade  of  work,  do  combine  to  give  one  boy 
or  girl  an  enoniious  advantage  over  another. 

Practically,  then,  if  one  is  lucky  enough  to  come  from 
eminent  and  successful  stock  on  both  sides  of  the  house, 
and  if  one  follows  the  family  bent,  his  choice  of  a  vocation 
follows  a  plain  path;  only  his  own  egregious  folly  can 
wreck  his  career.  By  so  much  as  any  boy  or  girl 
departs  from  this  ideal,  by  so  much  the  more  will  he 
need  a  rigid  self -analysis  and  careful  foresight  before  he 
ventures  the  longer  chance.     For  any  one,  none  of  whose 


j6  Vocational  Guidance  jar  the  Projcsaions 

relatives  lias  ever  done  anything  especially  well,  the 
gate  to  professional  life  is  indeed  strait  and  the  way 
narrow.  The  rare  families  who  come  up  out  of  the 
mass  commonly  make  the  distance  in  two  jumps:  sons 
in  business,  grandsons,  or  sometimes  the  yomigest  brother, 
in  the  professions. 


THE  PARTICULAR  PROFESSION 


Photograph  by  Alexander  Hesler,  1860 

Abraham  Lincoln 

The  exccplianal  man  who  was  a  law  unto  himself  hi  the  matter  of 
preparation  and  training  for  the  bar. 


CHAPTER   IX 

Law 

SOMEWHAT  paradoxically,  the  law  is  itself  so  highly 
specialized  that  it  demands  no  special  talent  in  the 
lawyer.  That  is  to  say,  there  are  so  many  different  sub- 
divisions of  the  profession  that  any  kind  of  ability  will  fit 
into  one  or  other  of  them,  provided  only  that  the  ability 
is  of  sufhciently  high  grade.  All,  therefore,  which  has 
already  been  said  of  the  professions  as  a  whole  is  pre- 
eminently true  of  the  law. 

In  England,  where  both  legislation  and  the  common  law 
are  pretty  thoroughly  rationalized,  practitioners  of  the 
law  are  somewhat  rigidly  divided  into  solicitors,  barristers, 
attorneys,  advocates,  counselors,  proctors,  and  the  like, 
each  of  whom  has  a  function  more  or  less  distinct  from 
the  others.  Some  remnant  of  these  differences  is  still 
maintained  in  a  few  of  our  own  states. 

In  general,  however,  in  this  country,  the  independence 
of  Congress  and  the  several  state  legislatures,  and  the 
enonnous  flood  of  ill-digested,  "happy-thought"  legisla- 
tion proceeding  from  them  all,  have  made  it  impossible 
for  any  one  man  to  say  what  the  law  is  at  any  gi\^en 
moment  in  more  than  a  small  field  of  human  interest. 
We  have,  therefore,  patent  lawyers  who  know  no  more 
than  laymen  of  general  business  matters;  corporation 
lawyers  who  find  their  best  efforts  hardly  sufficient  to  keep 
track  of  their  clients'  shifting  rights  in  this,  that,  and  the 
other  state;  criminal  lawyers,  in  both  senses,  whose  special 
field  is  the  further  obfuscation  of  the  juryman's  intellect. 
There  are   highly    respectable    "family    solicitors"    who 

59 


6o 


Vocational  Guidance  Jar  the  Professions 


act  as  guardians  for  minors  and  incompetent  persons 
or  manage  their  estates;  and  others,  not  so  highly 
respectable,  who  depend  on  "chasing  ambulances"  or 
collecting  bad  debts.  Some  men  do  little  except  to  look 
up  real-estate  titles.  Some  merely  present  to  juries  cases 
which  their  partners  have  worked  out.  Besides  these, 
there  still  remains  the  old-fashioned  country  lawyer,  who 


Brown  Bros. 


A  typical  country  lawyer  in  liis  office.     The  country  lawyer's  energies 

are  employed  in  giving  advice  to  the  farmer  or  the  small-town 

citizen  in  the  everyday  affairs  of  life 

advises  his  neighbors  in  all  their  everyday  affairs  and 
specializes,  so  to  say,  in  common  life. 

All  these  various  sorts  of  lawyers,  moreover,  more  or  less 
confine  themselves  to  special  kinds  of  court.  One  takes 
police  cases;  another  argues  appeals  to  the  Supreme 
Court.  Still  a  third  does  not  go  into  court  at  all,  but 
makes  a  living  by  keeping  people  out  of  trouble  instead 


Law  61 

of  getting  them  out.  There  are  lawyers  who  are  business 
men,  and  lawyers  who  are  scholars,  and  lawyers  who  arc 
dramatists.  Altogether,  every  possible  kind  of  man 
finds  a  place  somewhere  in  the  law. 

Now  it  so  happens  that  the  money  prizes  of  the  law 
arc  very  large,  far  larger  than  those  of  any  other  profes- 
sion, except  perhaps  the  profits  of  a  "best-selling"  author 
on  a  single  book,  or  a  singer  at  the  height  of,  usually 
her,  powers.  Certainly  of  all  professions  in  which  high 
success  is  possible  to  man\'  persons  at  the  same  time,  the 
law  ofifers  the  greatest  material  rewards. 

The  general  scale  of  these  rewards  is  well  shown  by  a 
recent  study  made  by  one  of  the  foremost  law  schools  of 
the  country  concerning  the  professional  incomes  of  its 
recent  graduates.  Tliis  indicates  that  the  average  grad- 
uate of  any  first-class  institution,  if  he  goes  into  the 
newer  parts  of  the  country  where  competition  is  not 
severe,  will  make  about  eight  hundred  dollars  the  first 
year.  This  is  just  about  what  he  would  make  if  he  went 
into  teaching  or  the  ministry,  or  took  any  salaried  position 
for  which  he  had  been  especially  trained.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  chooses  to  make  his  way  in  an  old  communit>' 
already  amply  supplied  with  legal  talent,  he  can  hardh- 
expect  to  receive  more  than  five  hundred  dollars  for  his 
first  year's  work.  In  other  words,  he  will  be  about  on  the 
lower  limit  for  college  graduates,  and  far  below  the  well- 
trained  merchant  of  the  same  age.  Some  \-oung  lawyers 
even  work  a  year  or  two  for  nothing  for  the  sake  of 
starting  in  a  good  office. 

Eight  years  after  hanging  out  his  shingle,  it  seems  to 
make  little  difference  where  a  man  has  located.  If  he 
has  managed  to  make  a  living  at  all,  he  will,  on  the  aver- 
age, be  earning  about  four  thousand  dollars  a  year,  no 
matter  whether  he  has  grown  up  with  a  new  city  or  made 


62 


Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 


a  place  for  himself  in  an  old  one.  Two  years  later,  and 
ten  years  out  of  school,  the  successful  lawyer  has  raised 
his  own  wages  another  thousand  and  is  now  halfway  along 
toward  five  figures. 

He  is  now  just  passing  thirty-five  years  of  age,  has 
established  himself  as  a  family  man  and  citizen,  and  made 
his  place  in  his  profession.  Most  men  remain  for  the 
rest  of  their  lives  at  a  good  deal  the  same  level  which 


Brown  liros. 


In  a  large  latu  office.     At  the  outset  of  their  career  some  young 

laivyers  give  a  year  or  two  of  work  for  the  opportunity 

of  a  good  start  with  a  well-established  law  firm 

they  reach  before  they  are  forty,  and  do  not  especially 
increase  their  earning  power  after  that  age. 

A  few  favored  persons  go  ver\^  much  beyond  the  general 
mass  even  of  the  distinctly  successful.  There  are  several 
lawyers  in  this  country  who  have  been  paid  ten  and 
twenty  thousand  dollars,  not  for  carrving  a  case  througli 


Law 


'J 


the  courts,  but  simply  for  giving  an  opinion  on  it.  Men 
take  "retainers"  of  a  thousand  or  two  thousand  dollars, 
not  for  doing  any  work,  but  mcreh'  for  keeping  awa\'  from 
the  other  side.  Fifty  thousand  dollars,  or  even  a  hundred 
thousand,  is  by  no  means  an  uncommon  fee  for  some 
of  the  more  eminent  members  of  the  bar.  A  prominent 
criminal  lawyer  is  reported  to  have  demanded,  as  the 
price  of  defending  a  certain  criminal  gang,  the  modest 
sum  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  day. 

"All  that  a  man  hath  will  he  give  for  his  Hfc, "  espe- 
cially when  confronted  with  the  imminent  prospect  of 
being  hanged;  and  most  of  us,  w^hen  we  have  saved  our 
own  property  or  annexed  another  man's,  are  glad  to 
divide  pretty  generously  with  the  counselor  who  made  it 
possible.  It  is  said  among  lawyers  what  when  a  certain 
eminent  member  of  the  New  York  bar  retires,  his  practice 
will  support  a  hundred  lesser  men;  while  still  another  is 
thought  to  spend  fifty  thousand  dollars  a  year  on  his  office 
force,  and  to  clear  more  than  a  half  million  for   himself. 

Even  so,  as  wages  go  in  this  country,  successful  lawyers 
are  not  especially  overpaid.  Taken  as  a  group,  they  are 
the  ablest  men  of  the  community  and  the  best  trained. 
But  one  has  only  to  match  u])  the  leading  members  of  the 
l)ar  in  town,  city,  state,  or  nation  with  the  most  successful 
business  men  in  the  same  group,  to  see  that  business 
profits  much  surpass  professional  fees,  though  the  lawyers 
are  on  the  whole  the  better  men.  The  chief  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  is  paid  only  fifteen 
thousand  dollars  a  year,  as  against  forty  thousand  for  the 
corresponding  office  in  England.  Daniel  Webster,  who 
was  one  of  the  small  group  of  really  great  Americans, 
is  said  rarely  to  have  made  ten  thousand  a  year  out  of 
his  practice.  These  sums  are  but  drops  in  the  bucket 
to  an  Astor  or  a  Carnegie. 


The  Halliday  Iliatorio  Pholo^raph  Co. 


Daniel  Webster 

Though  a  man  of  ample  learning  in  the  laiv,  he  is  probably  the 
highest  American  example  of  the  type  of  lawyer  who  does  his  best  work 
as  aft  advocate  in  the  courtroom  and  before  juries  or  as  an  orator  and 
politician. 


Law  6j 

Of  late  years,  however,  law  and  business  have  been  so 
closely  allied  that  many  of  the  prizes  of  the  business  world 
have  become  also  prizes  of  the  law.  At  least  two  great 
American  banking  firms  contain  men  who  began  life  at 
the  bar.  The  leading  patent  lawyer  of  the  country 
became  head  of  the  great  Bell  Telephone  System.  A 
vice-president  of  one  of  the  most  important  railways  of 
the  continent  is  also  the  author  of  a  standard  work  on 
corporation  law.  In  every  community,  lesser  men,  on  a 
smaller  scale,  have  made  their  legal  training  the  stepping- 
stone  to  business  success. 

The  immaterial  rewards  of  the  law  are  also,  probably, 
higher  than  those  of  any  other  profession.  Reputation, 
fame,  a  worthy  and  not  unimportant  part  in  the  world's 
work,  are  no  small  part  of  the  professional  man's  fees; 
and  of  these  the  lawyer  gets  quite  his  share.  Compare, 
for  example,  the  number  of  lawyers  who  hold  high  public 
office  with  the  numbers  from  any  other  profession  or 
from  all  others  combined.  Almost  half  the  members  of 
the  various  public  service  commissions  of  the  country 
are  lawyers,  as  against  a  quarter  who  are  engineers  and 
another  quarter  from  all  other  callings  combined.  If  we 
leave  out  military  heroes,  the  Presidents  of  the  United 
States  have  been  virtually  all  lawyers,  and  the  members 
of  Congress  either  lawyers  or  business  men.  Other  men 
have  to  choose  between  fame  and  money;  the  lawyer 
"eats  his  cake  and  has  it  too." 

Two  causes  are,  therefore,  always  at  work  to  draw  large 
numbers  of  young  men  toward  the  law.  One  is  the  great 
]5rizes  which  it  offers,  both  material  and  immaterial;  the 
other  is  the  fact  that,  as  we  have  seen,  the  law  requires  no 
special  gift  the  lack  of  which  warns  the  aspirant  that  he 
has  no  chance.  One  learns  early  that  he  is  not  going 
to  succeed  at  grand  opera.     By  the  time  he  is  halfway 


66  Vocaiional  Guidance  jor  the  Professions 

through  his  first  year  of  algebra  he  knows  that  nature 
never  meant  him  to  figure  the  stresses  of  a  truss  bridge. 
But  no  such  obvious  "No  trespassing"  signs  warn  the 
predetermined  failure  in  the  fields  of  law. 

The  result  is  that  the  law,  of  all  professions,  is  the  most 
desperately  overcrowded.  In  1890,  in  the  United  States, 
there  was  one  lawyer  to  each  eight  hundred  persons,  chil- 
dren included.  Ten  years  later  the  number  had  risen  to 
one  in  each  six  hundred  and  fifty.  In  19 10  there  was  one 
legal  adviser  to  each  five  hundred  potential  clients;  and 
the  number  holds  at  about  that  level  up  to  the  present 
day. 

The  other  civilized  countries  of  the  world  —  England, 
France,  and  Germany,  for  example  —  have  about  one 
lawyer  to  five  or  six  thousand  inhabitants;  or,  roughly, 
about  one  tenth  as  many  as  has  the  United  States.  We 
do,  to  be  sure,  really  need  several  times  as  many  lawyers 
as  other  countries,  largely  for  the  reason  that  we  arc 
running  forty-eight  legislative  experiment  stations  besides 
the  national  Congress,  where  other  nations  have  only 
one  each.  But  even  so,  we  hardly  need  ten  times  as  much 
legal  aid.  To  study  law  has,  with  us,  become  a  fashion 
or  a  mania. 

The  result  is  that  of  the  two  or  three  thousand  young 
men  who  are  every  year  admitted  to  the  bar  in  the  United 
States,  fully  a  third  never  even  start  practicing.  The 
remaining  two  thirds  divide  among  them  the  ^^'ork 
which  a  fourth  of  their  number  could  easily  handle.  It 
is  said  that  in  Chicago,  where  there  is  one  lawyer  to  every 
three  hundred  and  fifty  persons,  a  thousand  men  do  vir- 
tually all  the  legitimate  business,  and  four  thousand  pick 
up  odd  jobs  or  prey  on  the  community.  In  Boston,  only 
one  lawyer  out  of  five  gets  his  living  out  of  the  law  alone. 

As  alwavs  in  such  cases,  the  weakest  goes  to  the  wall. 


Law 


67 


The  cajjable  and  well-trained  men  absorb  all  the  business, 
almost  as  if  the  others  were  not  there.  The  ill-trained 
and  incapable  have  thrown  away  the  time  and  money 
which  they  spent  in  preparation,  and  have  merely  spoiled 
themselves  for  any  useful  work.  For  the  rest  of  their 
days  they  live  on  the  scraps  which  their  betters  will  not 
touch. 

The  practical  problem  of  the  would-be  legal  light  comes 
doMTi,   therefore,   to  this:     Assuming  that  he  likes   the 


Brown  Bros. 

A  high-school  class.     Since  the  law  requires  no  special  talent,  the 

young  man  in  high  school  who  aspires  to  the  bar  finds  no 

special  deficiency  in  himself  to  ivarn  him  from 

an  already  overcrowded  profession 

routine  work  of  the  law  and  is  attracted  by  its  prizes,  can 
he  reckon  on  beating  nearly  two-thirds  of  his  competitors 
and  at  the  worst  getting  into  the  first  half  of  this  group? 
It  is  neck  or  nothing  in  the  law.  Not  to  succeed  highly 
is  to  fail. 

The   first    consideration    is    the   training.     The   rcallv 


68  \  ocational  Cjuidancc  for  the  Professions 

first-class  law  schools  assume  that  their  students  have 
already  had  four  }'ears  in  a  high-grade  college,  where 
they  have  focused  their  work  on  their  futiu*c  vocation. 
The  languages,  history,  economics,  government,  writing, 
public  speaking,  and  the  like,  pursued  diligently  during 
at  least  four  years,  together  with  a  very  considerable 
social  experience,  are  the  onl}"  adequate  foundation  on 
which  to  build  the  professional  course.  To  be  sure,  men 
have  done  with  less,  especially  in  the  old  days  before  the 
pace  became  as  fast  as  it  is  now;  for  there  is  always  the 
exceptional  man  who  breaks  all  rules  and  is  a  law  unto 
himself.  But  the  ordinary-  mortal,  who  docs  not  begin 
to  shape  his  career  in  the  high  school,  follow  it  with  a 
single  eye  through  college,  and  graduate  from  a  good  la\\' 
school,  will  rarely  make  tip  his  handicap  and  compete 
with  better  trained  men. 

This  does  not  mean  that  there  is  not  a  field  for  the 
weaker  institutions,  or  even  for  a  few  of  the  correspondence 
schools.  For  some  the  law  is  only  an  opening,  or  a 
cloak,  for  politics.  There  are  many  persons,  trustees, 
guardians,  school  officials,  business  men,  court  reporters, 
notaries,  police  officers,  legislators,  one  might  go  on  at 
great  length  with  the  list,  who  without  ever  intending 
to  practice  the  law  find  it  useful  to  know  something  of  its 
principles  and  its  detail.  There  are  also  men  in  out-of- 
the-way  places,  or  among  special  groups  or  nationalities, 
who  frankly  turn  their  backs  on  all  the  great  prizes  of 
their  profession  and  are  content  to  do  a  useful  work  in 
a  humble  way.  For  such  as  these,  the  lesser  prepara- 
tion may  be  enough. 

But  if  one  wants  really  to  make  his  living  out  of  the 
law  alone,  and  to  have  at  least  a  chance  at  some  of  its 
fair  prizes,  he  will  have  to  reckon  on  eight  or  ten  years 
beyond  the  high-school  course  with  virtually  no  earnings. 


Law  6g 

It  is  either  this  or  a  lifelong  handicap.  Whatever  may 
have  been  true  in  the  past,  high  success  in  the  law 
to-day  is  conditioned  on  ample  preparation,  and  the 
requirements  grow  more  severe  with  each  passing  decade. 

Yet  when  all  is  said  concerning  opportunity  and  prepa- 
ration, the  brain  is  the  thing.  Men  haxe  been  helped 
to  success  in  the  law  by  a  smooth  tongue  and  a  ready  wit. 
Trial  lawyers,  in  particular,  commonly  have  a  special 
knack  of  making  other  people  see  facts  through  their 
clients'  eyes,  which  has  as  much  in  common  with  good 
salesmanship  as  with  any  professional  gift.  But,  in 
general,  any  member  of  the  bar  does  well  just  about  in 
proportion  as  he  can  work  longer  and  faster  than  his 
rivals. 

In  spite  of  our  well-meant  democratic  fiction,  men  do 
differ  enormously  in  native  ability.  John  Stuart  Mill 
was  reading  Greek  at  the  age  when  other  lads  are  sadly 
bothered  with  English.  D'Alembert,  who  was  a  foundling 
and  had  no  fair  chance  at  an  education,  worked  out  for 
himself,  de  novo,  the  mathematics  which  most  of  us 
hardly  master  with  the  best  of  teaching.  Macaulay 
could  repeat  an  ordinary  page  word  for  word  after  a 
single  reading,  and  probably  carried  in  his  memory  from 
fifty  to  one  hundred  times  as  much  data  as  an  ordinary 
educated  man.  In  the  examinations  for  mathematical 
honors  at  Cambridge  University  all  candidates  are  given 
the  same  time  and  all  have  had  the  same  class  instruction. 
But  the  "senior  ^^Tanglcr"  often  solves  nearly  twice  as 
many  problems  as  his  nearest  rival,  and  more  than  thirty 
times  as  many  as  the  lowest  man  who  tries  for  the  prize. 
Yet  even  the  latter  is  a  great  deal  better  than  an  average 
student. 

Now  the  practice  of  the  law  is  a  sort  of  perpetual  prize 
examination  in   the  solution  of  legal  problems.     If  the 


70  Vocational  (Juidance  for  the  Professions 

best  men  actually  clean  up  thirty  times  as  much  work 
as  the  general  run,  they  arc  fairly  entitled  to  thirty  times 
the  pay;  and,  as  we  have  seen,  they  commonly  get  it. 
Unless,  therefore,  one  has  by  nature  a  fair  amount  of  this 
high  native  capacity,  so  that  he  can  turn  off  great  quan- 
tities of  work  after  he  has  been  taught  how,  there  is  not 
much  use  in  his  spending  time  studying  law. 

Such  ability  ought  to  begin  to  show  during  the  grammar- 
school  course.  Save  in  very  rare  cases,  it  must  show 
throughout  the  high  school.  There  is,  to  be  sure,  the 
occasional  exception  to  all  rules.  There  may  be  bad 
preparation,  bad  eyes,  bad  health,  other  demands  on 
time,  the  temporary  storm  and  stress  of  adolescence. 
But,  in  general,  the  boy  or  girl  who  cannot  "get  up"  and 
pass  easily  any  high-school  subject  lacks  either  the  mental 
bite  or  the  strength  of  will  which  have  to  be  taken  for 
granted  in  the  law. 

Not  all  subjects,  however,  are  equally  significant. 
Many  a  successful  lawyer  has  fingers  that  are  all  thumbs, 
and  cannot  do  more  than  passable  work  at  manual 
training.  English  literature  and  the  modem  languages 
are  allied  to  the  fine  arts.  The  legal  mind  may  or  may 
not  take  to  them  easily.  The  sciences  are  in  general  a 
somewhat  special  gift. 

The  proper  field  of  the  schoolboy  lawyer  is  in  the 
classics,  history,  and  mathematics.  Latin  and  Greek, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  are  an  especially  good  test  of 
general  professional  ciuality.  Since  law  is  "the  most 
so"  of  all  the  professions,  these  subjects  are  preeminently 
the  test  here.  Horace  is  traditionally  the  lawyer's 
author,  as  whist  is  his  traditional  game.  History  is  a 
test  because,  like  the  law,  it  deals  with  human  nature 
and  human  institutions.  Mathematics  is  a  test,  because 
both  mathematics  and  the  law  are  based  on  logical 
analvsis. 


Law 


71 


Brown  Bros. 


A  class  in  carpentry.      That  a  boy  is  not  particularly  brilliant  in  the 
manual-training  class  has  little  or  no  significance  in  deter- 
mining whether  he  can  become  a  successful  lawyer 

In  other  words,  while  the  would-be  lawyer  should  be 
able  to  handle  almost  any  subject,  he  ought  to  do 
especially  well  with  his  Latin,  his  historx',  and  his  mathe- 
matics. If  he  cannot  do  this  much  —  well,  there  are 
plenty  of  other  kinds  of  work  which  interest  the  same 
sort  of  person  as  does  the  law  and  do  not  require  any- 
thing like  as  much  brains. 

Practically,  then,  one  feels  his  way  along.  He  likes 
the  law,  and  he  stands  close  to  the  head  of  his  class. 
Year  after  year,  as  the  less  gifted  students  drop  out,  the 
competition  with  one's  mates  becomes  more  exacting. 
So  long  as  one  remains  near  the  top  of  his  group,  all  is 
well.  If  he  holds  the  gait  through  college,  he  is  pretty 
certainly  good  legal  timber.  But  when  a  student  begins 
to  lose  ground,  he  is  probably  reaching  his  limits.  The 
ri\'als  who  are  beating  him  at  getting  marks  will  beat 
him  still  worse  at  gettiiig  clients. 


72 


Vocatiofial  Guidance  for  the  Professions 


But  of  course  one  measures  himself  against  his  mates 
not  onl}^  in  the  classroom,  which  is  on  the  whole  the  best 
proving  ground,  but  also  in  all  sorts  of  school  activities. 
In  the  course  of  time,  unless  one  is  incurably  blinded  by 
self-conceit,  he  has  rated  himself  pretty  accurately  in 
comparison  with  his  fellows.  Then  he  decides  in  how 
fast  company  it  is  worth  while  to  travel. 

For  the  law  is  preeminently  a  struggle  between  men. 
The  physician  fights  disease;  the  clergyman  contends 
against  natural  depravity;  the  engineer  and  the  man  of 
science  are  engaged  with  the  forces  of  nature.  But  the 
lawyer,  in  large  degree,  is  matched  against  another 
human  being,  and  under  conditions  which  leave  little 
question  which  has  won.  If  one  cannot  beat  his  mates 
at  school  and  college,  good,  bad,  and  indifferent  as  they 
come,  he  can  hardly  compete  with  the  highly  endowed 
group  assembled  by  the  great  prizes  of  the  law. 

On  the  other  hand,  though  in  sheer  brains  the  law 


Brown  bros. 


The  Children's  Court,  New  York.      The  courtroom  is  the  scene  of  a 
battle  of  -L^'its,  man  to  man.  in  which  the  ablest  mitid  wins 


Laiv  73 

makes  more  implacable  demands  than  any  other  profes- 
sion, it  does  in  part  make  this  up  by  going  a  little 
easy  in  matters  of  personality  and  temperament.  Several 
eminent  lawyers  have  been  men  of  slender  physique  who 
could  hardly  have  endured  the  rough  and  tumble  of,  let 
us  say,  engineering ;  or  stood  up  under  the  labors  of  a  busy 
general  practitioner  of  medicine.  A  few  men  also  have 
gone  high  in  the  law  who  were  too  awkward,  shy,  or 
unsocial  to  have  got  on  at  all  as  clergymen  or  teachers. 
After  all,  we  emplo}-  a  lawyer  whom  we  do  not  like,  if 
only  he  does  his  work,  as  we  do  not  employ  persons  with 
whom  our  relations  are  less  cold-blooded. 

There  is,  therefore,  a  type  of  youth,  clear-headed. 
Scholarly,  but  not  "popular,"  who  in  spite  of  the  fierce 
competition  of  the  law  may  do  better  there  than  at  one 
of  the  more  "sociable"  vocations.  Clergyman,  physician, 
and  teacher  need  to  be  loved.  It  is  sufficient  for  the 
lawyer  if  he  is  feared,  while  fe\^'  men  are  judged  so  entirely 
on  their  performance  alone. 

Women  ha\'e,  in  general,  not  taken  kindly  to  the  law. 
Although  women  law}^ers  number  something  more  than  a 
thousand  in  the  entire  country,  they  are  only  a  little 
more  than  one  to  each  hundred  of  their  learned  brothers. 
Indeed,  the  proportion  of  women  to  men  is  smaller  here 
than  in  any  other  professions  except  those  of  the  engineer- 
ing group.  Even  the  women  clergymen  outnumber  the 
women  law^-ers  more  than  three  to  one;  while  women 
teachers  are  upward  of  three  hundred  times  more 
numerous. 

Offhand,  one  would  rather  expect  the  contrary  situa- 
tion. So  many  woinen  nowadays  are  in  business,  have 
property  of  their  own  to  manage,  or  are  in  need  of  legal 
aid  of  one  sort  and  another,  that  there  should  be  an  ample 
special  field  for  the  woman  counselor  and  attorney,  even 


74  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

if  she  does  not  compete  with  men  in  general  practice.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  the  opportunity  for  women  lawyers 
seems  to  be  closely  limited.  Other  women  do  not  want 
them;  and  the  men,  naturally,  prefer  other  men.  More- 
over, they  are  of  necessity  cut  off  from  all  the  great 
prizes  of  the  profession. 

A  few  women  have  done  comparatively  well,  largely 
at  office  practice  for  women  clients  and  as  spokesmen  for 
groups  of  women  before  legislative  bodies  and  the  like, 
and  there  will  always  be  a  steady,  if  limited,  demand 
for  this  sort  of  work.  As  a  whole,  however,  level-headed 
women  seem  to  begrudge  the  long  preparation  for  a 
career  which  is  of  the  least  possible  use  to  the  nine  tenths 
of  them  who  marry,  and  to  find  other  sorts  of  work  more 
worth  while. 


CHAPTER  X 
The  Ministry 

IN  two  respects  the  ministry  stands  in  marked  contrast 
to  the  law: it  is  not  overcrowded  and  it  is  imderpaid. 

To  be  sure,  there  are  twice  as  many  clergymen  in  these 
United  States  as  are  needed  to  do  their  work.  But 
there  are  three  times  as  many  churches;  and  so  long  as 
three  struggling  bodies  whose  differences  of  polity  and 
doctrine  are  inappreciable  to  the  outsider  continue  to 
occupy  the  space  which  might  be  comfortably  filled  by 
one,  virtually  any  man  who  cares  to  fit  himself  for  the 
ministry  is  sure  of  some  sort  of  a  pulpit.  In  addition, 
where  there  is  any  oversupply  it  is  so  promptly  absorbed 
by  the  denominational  schools,  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association,  and  the  missionary  field,  that  of  late  years 
there  has  had  to  be  an  organized  campaign  to  persuade 
enough  men  to  go  into  the  profession. 

Of  great  money  prizes,  the  ministry  in  this  country  has 
absolutely  none.  Hardly  a  dozen  men  in  the  entire 
continent  surpass  the  ten  thousand  a  year  mark;  it  is  a 
rare  preacher  who  goes  beyond  five.  The  strong  city 
churches  run  to  three  or  four  thousand  dollars  a  year; 
the  weaker  drop  down  to  twelve  and  fifteen  hundred. 
Country  churches  and  those  in  the  home  missionary  field 
are  as  likely  to  pay  less  than  a  thousand  as  more.  All 
over  the  land,  in  the  little  places,  are  college  graduates 
with  three  years  of  theological  training  who  are  preach- 
ing for  five  or  six  hundred  dollars  a  year.  At  least  one 
important  denomination  is  trying  vainly  to  maintain  a 
minimum  wage  of  eight  hundred  dollars. 

75 


76 


Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 


Missionaries  in  the  foreign  field  may  have  to  cut 
themselves  off  from  civilization  for  eight  hundred  or  a 
thousand  dollars  as  beginners,  with  the  chance  that  at  the 
end  of  half  a  lifetime  of  hard  work  they  will  reach  only 
twelve  or  fifteen  hundred.  If  they  show  high  executive 
skill  they  may  rise  to  administrative  positions  —  at 
half  the  wage  the>'  would  get  in  store  or  factory.  Even 
so,  they  not  seldom  cut  even  this  small  stipend  again  in 
halves  to  get  back  to  the  practical  work  of  their  missions. 

A  man  like  Henry  Ward  Beecher  could  have  made 
any  sum  he  liked  as  a  jury  lawyer,  for  he  was  one  of  the 
foremost  popular  orators  of  his  day.  Instead,  he  declined 
lecture  offers  at  five  hundred  dollars  a  night  on  the  ground 
that  they  interfered  with  his  church  duties.  In  general, 
the  great  preachers  of  the  country  sacrifice  to  their  calling 
from  a  half  to  nine  tenths  of  their  potential  earnings  in 


Brown  Bros. 

Offices  and  waiting  room  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  in 
a  large  city.      This  institution  absorbs  many  catididatesfor  the  minis- 
try, thus  helping  to  create  a  demand  for  men  i?i  that  profession 


The  Ministry  JJ 

the  law ;  while  the  heads  of  the  great  institutional  churches 
make  a  like  reduction  from  their  possible  earnings  in 
business. 

At  the  other  end  of  the  scale,  a  man  takes  from  five  to 
ten  years  out  of  his  working  life  in  preparation,  and  then 
receives  no  more  for  the  remainder  of  his  days  than  if  he 
had  sold  goods  or  learned  a  trade.  For  it  must  always 
be  borne  in  mind  that  the  underpaid  clergjrman  is  a  much 
better  quality  of  man  than  the  average  clerk  or  artisan; 
one  who,  if  he  had  taken  to  counter  or  bench  instead  of 
pulpit,  would  have  been  the  last  man  laid  off  in  bad  times 
and  the  first  to  be  promoted  in  good.  Whoever  questions 
the  high  practical  efficiency  of  the  humbler  clergy  and 
their  wives,  has  only  to  compare  what  they  get  out  of  life 
and  what  they  do  for  their  offspring  with  what,  for 
example,  the  artisan  class  does  on  the  same  wage. 

Besides  all  this,  there  is  "the  dead  hne  of  forty." 
The  churches  want  young  ministers  and  are  impatient 
of  the  old.  The  lawyer  or  the  engineer  or  the  business 
man,  as  he  comes  to  the  less  active  time  of  life,  finds 
that  his  matured  experience  and  judgment  are  worth 
more  in  the  market  than  any  youthful  vigor.  He  works 
shorter  hours,  yet  he  commands  a  higher  wage.  Not  so 
the  clergyman.  At  just  about  the  time  of  life  when  his 
children  are  the  greatest  burden  and  when  the  need  to 
save  for  his  old  age  becomes  especially  obA'ious,  his 
earning  power  begins  to  slacken.  In  this,  the  clergyman 
is  more  like  the  artisan  than  like  the  professional  man. 
Each,  as  a  raw  youth,  is  worth  nearly  as  much  as  a 
mature  man,  and  each  tends  to  be  laid  off  before  his 
work  is  anything  like  done. 

However,  along  through  the  middle  range  of  salaries, 
say  from  two  thousand  to  four  thousand  dollars,  incomes 
are  somewhat  more  justly  proportioned  to  what  the  men 


yS  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

are  actualh'  worth.  As  for  the  celibate  clergy,  having 
no  wives  to  spend  their  money  for  them,  they  are  content 
to  suffer  want  that  others  may  the  more  abound. 

The  first  fact,  therefore,  for  any  prospective  clergyman 
to  face  is  that,  if  he  follows  his  call,  he  will  probably  be 
a  good  many  dollars  the  poorer  for  it. 

Not  only,  however,  must  the  clergyman,  under  present 
conditions  in  most  churches,  surrender  many  of  the 
blessings  of  civilization  which  only  money  can  buy.  He 
must,  in  addition,  give  up  much  else  that  makes  for 
fullness  of  life.  In  particular,  he  too  often  has  to  forego 
many  of  the  rewards  of  the  good  citizen  and  neighbor. 

For  the  heart-breaking  thing  about  the  ministry  is  the 
shortness  of  the  pastorate.  Time  was  when  a  clergyman 
settled  down  to  his  place  like  a  lawyer  or  a  doctor,  not 
expecting  to  move  till  he  retired  to  the  leisure  of  an 
honored  old  age  in  the  same  town.  He  saw  the  genera- 
tions come  and  go,  as  the  family  solicitor  or  the  family 
doctor  took  on  the  grandchildren  of  his  contemporaries. 

That  time  has  long  gone  b\'.  In  the  author's  own 
church,  three  men  covered  the  first  century,  each  giving 
virtually  his  entire  professional  life.  It  took  seven  to 
span  the  next  hundred  years,  yet  even  these  would  now  be 
thought  to  have  had  fairly  long  pastorates.  There  are 
churches  that  expect  to  make  a  change  every  two  or 
three  years.     Seven  ministers  in  nine  \'ears  is  on  record. 

The  result  is  that  too  often  to  the  clergyman  are 
denied  in  middle  life  some  of  the  best  rewards  of  faithful 
service.  He  tends  to  become  a  bird  of  passage,  with 
no  permanent  dwelling  of  his  own  around  which  grow  up 
the  associations  and  memories  of  a  life,  with  no  special 
stake  in  any  one  community  in  which  he  has  worked 
long  and  which  he  can  feel  that  he  has  helped  to  make. 
Rarely  can  he  hope  to  see  much  of  the  fruitage  of  his 


The  Ministry  79 

"labors.  All  these  are  sources  of  happiness  which  only 
the  aged  can  fully  understand. 

On  the  other  hand,  certain  non-material  rewards  of  the 
ministry  are  very  great,  much  greater,  probably,  than 
those  of  any  other  vocation.  To  begin  with,  no  human 
occupation,  not  even  homemaking,  combines  so  much 
variety  with  so  little  drudgery.  The  weekly  sermon 
brings  the  joy  of  creative  expression  which  is  the  high 
reward  of  the  literary  man,  yet  without  the  brain-bleeding 
necessity  of  writing  something  every  day  of  the  week  and 
reading  the  proof  afterwards.  Its  delivery  carries  the 
thrill  of  the  actor,  without  the  deadening  repetition  of 
the  six  evening  perfomiances  and  two  matinees.  The 
pastor  is  a  teacher  who  does  not  read-  examination  papers 
or  maintain  discipHne.  He  is  a  physician,  but  to  souls 
that  live,  not  to  bodies  that  beat  him  in  the  end.  Neither 
physician  nor  lawyer  enters  into  such  intimate  or  reward- 
ing relations  with  his  fellow  men,  or  shares  so  fully  the 
great  experiences  of  their  lives. 

Moreover,  the  clergyman  is  also  an  administrator. 
Now  the  one  great  and  pemiancnt  satisfaction  which 
the  administrator  has,  in  his  round  of  infinite  detail,  is 
that  he  is  building  his  life  into  a  business  enterprise,  a 
political  party,  a  social  group,  or  an  institution,  which  is 
in  itself  worth  while,  and  which  will  last  after  he  himself 
is  gone.  But  the  clergyman  is  building  his  life  into  the 
greatest  and  most  enduring  of  all  human  institutions ;  and 
this  quite  aside  from  his  own  conviction  that  he  helps  to 
bring  in  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

Curiously  enough,  too,  the  ministry  is  the  most  adven- 
turous of  the  professions.  The  missionary  on  the 
frontier,  the  worker  in  the  foreign  field,  even  the  pastor 
of  some  city  churches,  meets  experiences  that  must  make 
the  lives  of  other  professional  men  seem  tame.      Every 


Rev.  Dr.  William  Stephen  Rainsford 


Brown  Bros. 


The  popular  rector  of  St.  George's  Church,  New  York  City  —  "The 
Little  Church  Around  the  Corner."  The  modern  city  pastor  is  the 
intimate  counselor  and  guide,  the  physician  and  leader  of  the  souls  of 
men  of  the  most  varied  sorts. 


The  Ministry  Si 

one  who  reads  the  newspapers  knows  what  happens  when 
there  is  an  outbreak  in  any  barbarous  community. 
Every  student  of  geography  knows  how  large  a  part  of 
this  globe  was  first  explored  by  men  in  black  coats. 

For  various  reasons,  therefore,  the  ministry  is  a  highly 
attractive  vocation.  No  one,  I  am  sure,  can  live  much 
among  professional  men  without  feeling  that  if  the  clergy 
as  a  whole  are  the  worst  paid  of  all  laborers,  they  are  also 
as  a  whole  the  happiest  in  their  work.  Certain  it  is  that 
in  social  position,  and  in  everything  else  that  makes 
civilized  life  worth  Hving,  the  clergy  are  incomparably 
better  off  than  any  non-professional  group  on  the  same 
incomes. 

But  wliile  the  ministry  stands  in  striking  contrast  to 
the  law  in  the  rewards  which  it  provides,  it  is  remarkably 
like  the  law  in  the  sort  of  men  that  it  attracts. 

In  general,  the  clergyman,  like  the  lawyer,  has  no 
special  gifts.  A  few  men  in  both  professions  are  natural 
orators;  and  for  these,  in  each  profession,  there  is  a 
somewhat  special  field.  For  the  most  part,  however, 
clergymen  and  lawyers  alike  are  sound,  all-round  men, 
with  enough  general  ability  to  master  the  particular 
matters  which  they  need  to  know.  Anybody,  in  short, 
with  brains  enough  for  any  profession  can  learn  to 
preach. 

The  standard  of  native  ability  for  fair  success  in  the 
ministry  is  not  so  severe  as  in  the  law.  Roughly  speaking, 
the  boy  who  reaches  the  middle  of  his  class  in  high  school 
or  college  is  probably  up  to  the  standard.  A  few 
clergymen  have  reached  more  than  a\"erage  success 
whose  scholarship  was  below  even  this  grade. 

As  for  special  quality,  that  too  differs  little  from  the 
symptoms  of  legal  talent.  Weakness  in  mathematics  is 
a  less  discouraging  sign  than  for  the  law;  literary  ability 


82  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

is,  on  the  whole,  a  more  hopeful  one.  In  general,  the 
clergyman- to-be  should  be  strongest  in  history  and  the 
humanities  and  not  conspicuously  weak  in  most  other 
things.  For  the  distinguishing  mark  of  the  clergyman 
is  not  intellectual  but  moral.  His  special  quality  hes  in 
temperament  and  character  rather  than  in  brain. 

Time  was  when  the  working  ministry  contained  great 
scholars.  That  time  has  long  gone  by;  the  scholars  now 
hold  professorships,  and  teach  instead  of  preach.  Time 
was  also  when  the  clergy  were  leaders  of  human  thought  — 
prophets,  reformers,  philosophers,  statesmen,  and  even 
men  of  science.  This  also  is  no  longer  true.  The 
modem  clergyman  is  a  practical,  common-sense,  likable 
being,  tactful  and  kindly,  not  especially  learned,  very 
little  of  a  priest  and  a  great  deal  of  a  man. 

The  tradition  still  lingers  that  the  clergy  are  a  lot  of 
flat-chested  anasmics,  addicted  to  worsted  slippers  and 
sore  throat.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  profession  has 
always  attracted  men  of  the  type  of  Livingstone,  Bor- 
row, the  missionary  bishops  of  our  own  West,  and  the 
itinerant  outdoor  revivalists  "who  first  knocked  the 
sinner  down,  and  then  dragged  him  to  the  throne  of 
grace."  Not  even  the  engineers  have  a  better  record 
for  physical  courage  and  hardihood. 

Of  late  years,  moreover,  there  has  been  a  marked 
tendency  for  college  athletes  to  take  up  rehgious  or 
philanthropic  work,  with  the  result  that  most  cities 
nowadays  could  put  into  the  field  a  clerical  nine  or  eleven 
that  would  be  too  much  for  a  team  drawn  from  twice 
their  numbers  in  any  other  vocational  group.  The  old 
cricket-playing,  fox-hunting  type  of  parson  tends  more 
and  more  to  replace  the  pious  scholar.  The  result  is 
such  things  as  Dr.  Grenfell's  Parish  and  Archdeacon 
Stuck's  conquest  of  the  highest  mountain  peak  in  North 


Tlie  Ministry 


S3 


Brown  Broa. 


Rev.  Peter  Cartwright  —  An  old-fashioned  camp-meeting 

revivalist 
Peter  Carhvright,  presiding  elder  in  the  Methodist  church  and  member 
of  the  legislature  of  Illinois,  was  equally  renowned  as  preacher  and  as 
pugilist. 

America,  after  some  of  the  best  climbers  of  the  continent 
had  tried  in  vain  a  dozen  years. 

Yet  when  all  this  has  been  said,  there  still  remains  one 
essential  quality  which  every  clergyman  ought  to  have, 
but  which  a  lawyer  or  a  doctor  may  lack  completely 
and  yet  "arrive."  This  quality  has  no  accepted  name. 
"Capacity  for  leadership"  hits  it  as  well  as  anything. 


The  Ministry  8j 

Just  what  this  quality  is,  nobody  seems  yet  to  have 
made  out.  But  of  its  importance  there  can  be  no 
question.  We  all  recognize  it  in  some  people,  and  its 
lack  equally  in  others.  Some  men  there  are  whom  other 
men  obey.  They  may  not  be  at  all  clever.  Oftentimes 
they  are  altogether  wrong-headed  and  foolish;  and  they 
lead  their  followers  into  all  sorts  of  absurdities.  Popular 
leaders  of  all  kinds  have  it,  politicians  especially.  One 
has  only  to  watch  the  next  wild-eyed  religious  or  political 
or  social  obsession  that  sweeps  the  country  to  see  the 
quality  at  its  best,  and  worst. 

In  other  words,  in  some  way,  v/e  do  not  know  how, 
certain  men  do  succeed  in  moving  other  people's  wills 
as  certain  other  men  cannot.  We  see  it  in  the  nursery, 
where  one  child  controls  the  rest,  and  leads  them  into 
varied  mischief  that  they  would  never  have  thought  of 
themselves.  It  is  not  the  strongest,  or  the  oldest,  or  the 
brightest,  or  the  best  behaved,  among  children  any  more 
than  among  men.  The  quality  ap]3cars  almost  like  a 
special  gift  not  unlike  an  ear  for  a  tune.  E^'idently, 
however,  it  is  not  always  the  same  thing,  but  several 
different  ways  of  getting  the  same  result. 

Whatever  this  mysterious  quality  is,  the  successful 
clergyman  has  need  of  it.  He  has  need  of  it  so  much  that 
without  it,  only  rare  qualities,  and  those  in  large  measure, 
will  make  up  for  the  lack.  Fortunately,  the  capacity 
need  not  accompany  high  scholarship.  Fortunately  also, 
its  presence  is  easily  proved  on  ball  field  and  playground. 

In  other  words,  the  successful  modern  clergyman,  as 
has  been  well  said,  is  "a  specialist  in  manhood,"  as 
healthy-minded,  brave-hearted,  strong-bodied  a  creature 
as  any  vocation  can  show.  He  must  have  manners,  tact, 
social  instincts,  and  a  genuine  and  spontaneous  liking  for 
people,  together  wdth  some  scholarship.     Any  boy  who 


86  Vocational  Gtiidance  for  the  Professions 


Brown  Bros. 


Even  in  childhood  the  natural  leaders  show  their  quality 

can  honestly  assign  himself  to  this  type  is  a  fair  candi- 
date for  the  ministry. 

But  the  essential  element  is  his  "call."  A  personal 
piety  that  makes  religion  real,  and  a  desire  for  service 
that  makes  the  work  its  own  reward,  are  the  indispensable 
prerequisites.  It  ought  not  to  be  difficult  for  an\'  youth 
to  try  himself  out  on  this  point  also. 

Yet  on  the  other  hand,  a  youth  may  well  beware  of 
expecting,  in  these  days,  any  "call"  in  the  old-fashioned, 
supernatural  sense.  To  the  modern  youth  to  whom  the 
ministry  appeals,  the  call  tends  to  have  in  it  less  of  the 
compelling  voice  from  heaven,  and  more  of  a  clear-headed 
stocktaking  of  opportunity  and  capacity  for  the  work 
proposed.  The  time  has  gone  by  when  piety  and  zeal 
alone,  however  great  they  be,  will  offset  a  lack  of  train- 
ing, or  a  natural  endowment  of  the  right  quantity  and 
kind.     Indeed,  we  are  coming  to  feel  that  nil  men,  from 


The  Ministry  Sy 

the  clergyman  to  the  mechanic,  ought  to  have  some  real 
"call"  to  their  particular  task;  a  real  call,  that  is  to  say, 
in  the  sense  that  each  alike  should  have  sifted  out  his 
capacity  and  be  fairly  sure  that,  on  the  whole,  he  is 
probably  on  the  way  to  his  best  work.  When  this  feel- 
ing becomes  a  deep-seated  conviction,  based  not  on  fancy 
or  on  desire,  but  on  hard  fact,  it  has  all  the  essentials  of 
a  "call"  to  that  work.  That  one  is  likely  to  minister 
acceptably,  is  after  all  the  best  sign  that  any  youth  is 
appointed  to  any  task. 

For  men  who  are,  in  general,  of  the  clerical  type,  but 
who  take  less  kindly  to  books  and  ideas  than  a  preacher 
must,  there  is  a  considerable  field  in  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  the  Boy  Scouts,  various  sorts  of 
social  scr^dce,  and  the  hkc.  For  those  who,  to  this  equip- 
ment, add  some  admini-strative  skill  there  is  a  considerable 
opening  as  executive  officers  of  organizations  of  \'arious 
]Dhilanthropic  sorts.  All  these  involve  certain  parts  of 
a  clerg}Tnan's  work  without  the  rest,  and  without,  in 
most  cases,  its  most  precious  rewards. 

As  a  profession  for  women,  the  ministry  is  some  four 
times  more  attractive  than  the  law.  That  is  to  say, 
there  are  upwards  of  four  thousand  clerg\nvomen  in  the 
country,  so  that  about  one  pastor  in  thirty  is  of  the 
sex  that  furnishes  a  majority  of  the  church  members. 
However,  the  different  sections  of  the  country  and  the 
different  religious  bodies  vary  so  much  that  this  bare 
fact   has  little  meaning. 

A  few  theological  schools  make  rather  a  specialty 
of  training  women  for  the  pastoral  side  of  the  ministry, 
and  there  is  in  many  places  a  demand  for  trained  women 
as  lay  workers.  But  the  woman  preacher,  quite  as  much 
as  the  woman  lawyer,  is  virtually  cut  off  from  even  the 
moderate  successes  of  the  profession. 


88  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

The  fact  is,  the  woman  who  might  become  a  minister, 
Hke  the  woman  A\'ho  might  become  a  la\\'yer,  commonly 
prefers  to  be  something  else.  As  we  shall  see  more  fulh' 
later,  the  legal-clerical  type  of  person  is  very  nearly  the 
same  as  the  pedagogical  t>'pe.  Women  preachers  and 
lawyers  in  posse  are  women  teachers  in  esse.  Although 
free  to  choose,  they  almost  miiversally  prefer  the  desk 
to  either  the  pulpit  or  the  bar. 

Not  a  few  also,  who,  if  they  had  been  men,  would  have 
been  attracted  to  the  ministry,  now  turn  to  \'arious  sorts 
of  social  service.  In  fact,  just  now  the  number  of  young 
women  just  out  of  college  who  aspire  to  this  kind  of  w^ork 
has  become  so  great  that  in  many  places  two  or  three 
have  to  be  turned  aw^ay  for  every  one  that  is  taken 
on.  In  spite,  however,  of  \'ast  numbers  of  incompetent 
amateurs,  who  after  an  amusing  and  highly  educative 
experience  of  a  year  or  two  become  discouraged  and  drop 
out,  there  is  in  the  field  of  social  service  a  constant  de- 
mand for  trained  and  permanent  workers.  A  great  deal 
of  such  work,  however,  both  of  men  and  of  women,  is 
hardly  of  a  professional  sort. 


CHAPTER  XI 
Teaching 

NOT  all  who  teach  are  teachers.  The  instructor  on 
the  piano,  in  talent  and  mental  quality,  is  first  of 
all  a  musician.  The  leader  of  a  class  in  mechanic  arts 
may  be  an  especially  well-equipped  and  intelligent  arti- 
san who  could  make  a  better  living  outside  the  school- 
room. Any  one  who  knows  anything  can  give  some  sort 
of  instruction  to  other  persons  who  know  less. 

At  the  other  end  of  the  scale,  the  professors  in  the 
technical  and  graduate  schools  are  largely  physicians  or 
engineers  or  lawyers,  men  of  science,  or  scholars  in  some 
special  field.  In  fact,  there  are  several  professorships 
in  this  covmtry,  and  many  more  abroad,  whose  holders 
are  not  expected  to  do  any  class  work  at  all.  All  these 
men,  however  wise  or  skillful  their  instruction,  find  their 
real  work  and  make  their  reputations  as  mathematicians, 
or  historians,  or  Sanscritists,  or  what  not.  For  our  pur- 
poses, they  belong  with  other  mathematicians,  historians, 
or  Sanscritists  who  do  not  happen  to  be  teaching. 

Practically,  then,  we  shall  count  as  teachers  only  those 
persons  who,  however  great  their  learning,  are  interested 
primarily  in  their  learners;  who  teach,  not  their  subjects, 
but  their  pupils. 

With  this  limitation,  it  becomes  clear  at  once  that  the 
sort  of  person  who  does  well  at  teaching  is  very  much 
the  same  sort  of  person  as  he  who  does  well  in  the  ministry. 
He  has  the  same  zeal  for  service,  the  same  need  of  tact 
and  sympathy  and  manliness.  Indeed,  of  late  years 
there  has  grown  up  the  same  demand  for  the  college 

89 


Hart,sook 

David  Starr  Jordan  —  Man  of  science,  university  president, 
administrator,  lecturer,  reformer 

An  example  of  the  all-round  ability  in  professional  fields 


Teaching  Qi 

athlete,  and  the  same  unfortunate  tendency  to  lay  him 
off  as  he  comes  to  "the  dead  line  of  forty."  Historically, 
teaching  has  always  and  everywhere  been  in  the  hands 
of  the  clergy.  It  still  remains  in  the  hands  of  the  same 
kind  of  man. 

In  other  respects  also,  the  two  professions  strongly 
resemble  one  another.  They  demand  very  much  the 
same  grade  of  native  ability,  and  of  very  much  the  same 
sort.  Neither  requires  much  special  talent.  In  both, 
the  supply  of  men  tends  rather  to  fall  behind  the  demand 
than  to  run  ahead  of  it.  And  finally,  both  professions, 
as  we  should  guess  from  their  being  undermanned,  are 
underpaid. 

In  his  wage  the  schoolmaster  has  a  slight  advantage 
over  the  clergyman.  To  be  sure,  in  the  handful  of 
especially  well-paid  positions  the  clergy  are  a  little  ahead, 
since  five  thousand  dollars  a  year  is  about  the  upper 
limit  for  teachers  who  are  not  administrators.  The 
general  run  of  wages,  grade  for  grade,  is  about  the  vSamc; 
but  nowhere  in  the  more  thickly  settled  portions  of  the 
country  do  schoolmasters  work  for  the  wretched  pittance 
of  the  back-coimtry  clergy.  The  worst-paid  college 
graduate  with  a  family  has  nearly  twice  the  income  as 
a  teacher  as  has  his  brother  of  the  cloth.  Practically, 
therefore,  any  youth  who  feels  the  call  to  the  ministry, 
and  yet  has  not  much  likelihood  of  rising  out  of  its 
lower  levels,  may  well  pause  and  consider  whether  he 
will  not  be  equally  useful  to  the  community  and  a  great 
deal  more  valuable  to  his  family  if  he  chooses  the  sister 
profession. 

Yet  while  in  temperament,  in  character,  and  in  income 
the  pedagogue  has  most  in  common  with  the  parson, 
intellectually  he  inclines  more  to  the  quality  of  the 
lawver.     No  one  can  teach  successfullv  without  a  good 


Q2  Vocational  Guidance  jor  the  Professions 


Brown  Bros. 

A   university  professor  leclnriiit^  to  Jiis  class.      The  university  pro- 
fessor who  conducts  a  class,  though  he  be  an  expert  scholar  in  his 
special  field,  must  be  interested  primarily  in  his  learners 

deal  of  that  power  of  analysis  and  clear  statement  which 
is  characteristic  of  the  legal  mind,  and  which,  as  much  as 
by  any  one  thing,  is  proved  by  ability  to  handle  mathe- 
matics. Practically,  then,  the  successful  teacher  is  a 
man  who  would  have  done  moderately  well  either  in  the 
pulpit  or  at  the  bar,  but  who  for  sufficient  reasons  of  his 
own  chooses  the  blackboard.  Essentially,  he  is  a  mixture 
of  the  legal  and  the  clerical  type.  All  that  has  been  said 
of  either  of  these  professions  applies  with  almost  equal 
force  to  teaching. 

Nevertheless,  a  man  ma\'  be  a  good  lawyer  or  a  success- 
ful preacher  and  yet  fail  altogether  at  teaching.  Bishop 
Brooks,  for  example,  was  completely  beaten  by  a  class  of 
boys;  while  the  number  of  clever  and  admirable  women 
who    cannot    teach    is    beyond    count.      Such    persons 


Teaching  Qj 

"apparently  fail  in  some  measure  for  lack  of  that  analyzed 
"capacity  for  leadership"  which  we  have  already  seen  to 
be  essential  Jto  the  clergyman  but  not  to  the  lawyei: 
Deeper  than  this,  however,  lies  one  natural  gift  which 
makes  or  mars  the  teacher's  career. 

With  teaching,  then,  we  come  for  the  first  time  to  a 
profession  for  w^hich  liigh  general  intelligence,  character, 
and  good  will  are  not  alone  sufficient.  There  has  to  be 
also  a  certain  special  quality.  This  special  quality,  in 
the  case  of  the  teacher,  lies  in  the  \'ohmtary  attention. 

There  arc  two  general  types  of  attention.  Stupid, 
scatter-brained,  w'cak-mindcd,  ill-trained  persons  have,  of 
course,  little  control  over  their  minds  at  best.  Their 
attention  is  ahva^'s  wandering,  like  the  minds  of  school 
children  on  a  sleepy  afternoon.  But  capal^le  and  trained 
workers  are  by  no  means  all  alike.  Some  of  them,  as  they 
set  themselves  to  a  task,  "narrow  down  the  attention  to  a 
point."  They  fix  their  minds  on  their  immediate  work 
and  become  blind  and  deaf  to  all  besides.  Many  such 
persons  are  characteristically  "absent  minded."  That 
is  to  say,  they  tend  always  to  think  intently  of  one  thing 
onh'.  even  when  they  are  not  at  work.  Tvlany,  however, 
are  able  to  turn  this  absence  of  mind  on  and  off  at  will, 
and  are  as  alert  as  other  people.  This  sort  of  attention 
is  the  "concentrated"  type. 

Other  equally  efficient  workers  "attend"  in  a  dift'erent 
manner.  They  are  able  to  put  their  minds  on  one  matter 
withotit  shutting  out  all  others.  They  think  as  hard  as 
other  people  about  the  one  important  matter,  but  they 
do  not  completely  stop  thinking  about  the  rest.  In  other 
words,  the}'  tend  to  be  more  aware  than  the  other  sort 
of  what  is  going  on  in  their  own  minds.  This  is  the 
"diffused"  type  of  attention. 

Now  for  most  purposes  of  life,  one  type  of  attention  is 


94 


Vocational  Guidance  jor  the  Professions 


practically  as  good  as  the  other.  So  far  as  either  has  any 
advantage  for  hard  intellectual  work,  the  concentrated 
type  is  possibly  a  little  better,  as  it  is  also  the  more  com- 
mon among  men  who  work  much  b\'  themselves.  But 
no  one  can  succeed  at  teaching  unless  his  attention  is  of 
the  diffused  type.     The  abihty  to  think  of  several  matters 


Brown  Broa. 


Teaching  a  class  in  the  grades.     This  scene  makes  it  obvious  that  a 

teacher,  to  be  successful,  must  have  that  gift  of  mind  which 

enables  her  to  think  of  more  than  one  thing  at  a  time 

at  once  seems  largely  to  be  born  in  us.     Obviously,  with- 
out this  gift  it  is  uphill  work  keeping  school. 

Even  more  important  for  the  teacher  than  the  proper 
attention  type,  is  a  perfect  normality  of  temperament. 
Teaching  is  most  trying  work.  Adults  arc  never  more 
unreasonable  than  when  they  are  concerned  with  the 
interests  of  their  offspring.  Children  are  more  unreason- 
able and  more  merciless  than  any  adults.  Any  oddity 
of  speech  or  manner,  any  shyness,  nervousness,  or  irri- 
tabiHty,  any  unevenness  of  temper  that  makes  one  a 
different  person  to  deal  \vith  at  different  times,  any  undue 


Teaching  Qj 

■sensitiveness  or  self-consciousness  is  a  far  greater  handicap 
to  a  teacher  than  to  a  person  in  any  other  profession. 
Variety  is  not  the  spice  of  Hfe  to  the  young,  to  whom 
ever\^hing  is  new;  and  the  best  teachers  combine  a 
steady-going,  almost  plodding,  intellect  with  an  equally 
steady-going  and  unassailable  temper. 

Fortunately,  however,  no  matter  how  mi  aware  one 
may  be  of  his  other  qualities,  one  can  hardly  be  queer,  or 
shy,  or  bad-tempered  without  knowing  it.  If  after  that 
he  persists  in  entering  the  teaching  profession,  his  inevit- 
able failure  is  his  own  fault. 

Fortimately,  also,  teaching  is  the  easiest  of  all  profes- 
sions, except  nursing,  in  which  to  try  one's  self  out  in 
advance.  There  are  younger  members  of  the  famih'  to 
be  helped  with  lessons.  There  is  coaching  to  be  done  on 
the  playgroimd.  There  are  Sunday  school  classes  to  be 
taught,  and  tenderfoot  Boy  Scouts  to  be  initiated.  In  one 
way  or  another,  any  boy  or  girl  who  thinks  of  entering 
the  profession  can  make  sure  of  two  points —  whether 
he  is  going  to  like  teaching,  and  whether  he  has  the  sort 
of  mind  and  temperament  that  makes  good  teaching 
possible. 

Persons  who  find  they  like  teaching,  and  for  whom  the 
richness  of  the  immaterial  rewards  offsets  the  meagerness 
of  the  wage,  will  in  the  end  have  to  choose  among  four 
well-marked  subprofessions. 

Lowest  of  the  teaching  group — lowest,  in  fact,  of  all  the 
professions — are  the  teachers  in  the  common  schools.  A 
few  of  these  are  college  graduates ;  and  froin  this  they  drop 
down  to  those  possessing  only  the  slender  equipment  of 
two  years  beyond  grammar  school.  Their  wages  vary  to 
correspond,  nearly  eight  hundred  dollars  a  year  on  an 
average  in  California;  four  hundred  and  above  in  Penn- 
sylvania; less  than  two  hundred  in  two  of  our  states, 


96 


Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 


whose  names  their  inhabitants  will,  naturalh',  prefer  not 
to  have  mentioned.  Yet  there  are  a  few  localities  where 
the  demand  for  especially  well-equipped  grade  teachers 
has  carried  the  stipend  over  the  usual  high-school 
level. 

Except  for  the  principalships  of  the  largest  schools, 
men  have  virtually  abandoned  this  field.  There  is  also 
a  tendency  in  some  parts  of  the  country  to  "unionize" 
the  grade  teachers,  and  to  make  teaching  a  trade  instead 
of  a  profession.  This  group,  unlike  the  rest,  is  a  good 
deal  overcrowded. 

A  second  group  in  the  larger  l^ody  is  made  up  of  the 
specialty  teachers.  These  are  people  who  in  other  respects 
are  like  the  ordinary  class  teachers,  and  who  could,  in 
general,  do  the  ordinary  grade  work  with  rather  more 


Brow  ii  Bru 


Tapestry  designing  in  a  school  of  applied  design.     The  instructor  of 
such  a  class  helons^s  to  the  group  of  ^'specialty  teachers" 


Teaching 


07 


Brown  Bros. 

.1  class  in  cooking.     The  girl  ivho  discovers  in  herself  an  aptitude 

for  a  special  field  in  teaching  loill  receive  the  higher 

rewards  in  her  chosen  profession 

than  average  skill,  but  in  addition  have  some  special 
talent  which  they  have  developed  on  the  teaching  side. 
Here  belong  the  teachers  of  music,  drawing,  gymnastics, 
and  the  group  of  imrelated  arts  which  by  a  strange 
per\'ersion  of  language  we  call  domestic  science.  This 
division  of  the  profession  is  less  crowded  than  the  first, 
and  better  paid.  Any  girl,  therefore,  who  looks  to  teach- 
ing below  the  high-school  level  may  well  make  a  careful 
inventory  of  her  natural  gifts  to  sec  whether  she  can 
specialize  her  field. 

Third  come  the  high-school  teachers  and  the  college 
teachers  who  are  not  members  of  other  professions  or 
primarily  scholars.  These,  in  addition  to  the  qualities 
common  to  all  successful  teachers,  have  cultivated  some 
special  group  of  subjects.  Nearly  all  the  positions  in  this 
field  that  are  much  worth  having  are  limited  to  college 
graduates;  some  states  so  limit  them  by  .statute.     Here 


q8  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

is  the  place  for  the  sort  of  person  who  might  also  do 
moderately  well  at  the  gospel  or  at  law. 

Fourth  and  last  come  the  principals,  head  masters, 
college  presidents,  superintendents,  inspectors,  and  the 
like.  A  portion  of  this  group  belong  to  the  teaching 
profession  without  being  teachers.  Some  of  them,  it  may 
be  guessed,  could  not  teach  if  they  tried.  Many  of  them, 
however,  have  not  tried,  but  have  fitted  themselves 
directly  for  their  work  as  directors  of  other  people.  Here, 
therefore,  is  an  attractive  field  for  men  of  business  capacit>' 
and  executive  skill  who  are  interested  in  education  but 
have  not  the  gifts  of  temperament  which  make  the 
teacher.  Most  of  such  positions,  however,  are  filled  by 
promotion  from  the  ranks.  Thc>-  arc,  in  fact,  the  prizes 
of  the  profession  to  which  the  classroom  instructor  looks 
forward. 

Evidently,  then,  teaching  covers  the  greatest  range  of 
natural  ability  of  any  of  the  professions.  At  one  end 
stands  the  crude  and  ignorant  girl,  a  cog  in  a  vast  machine, 
working  for  half  the  wages  she  would  make  at  general 
housework;  at  the  other  is  the  university  president, 
responsible  for  the  spending  of  three  or  four  millions  in 
his  annual  budget.  Between  these  two,  every  one  who 
has  the  call  to  teach  can  find  a  place  at  some  level. 

Teaching  is  preeminently  the  woman's  profession. 
Women  teachers  in  the  United  States  outnumber  all 
other  professional  women  together  by  three  to  one,  and 
they  outnumber  men  teachers  from  the  same  proportion 
up  to  ten  to  one. 

Among  men,  lawyers,  doctors,  clergymen,  and  teachers 
are  about  equalh'  numerous.  Among  women,  lawyers, 
doctors,  and  ministers  together  are  less  than  one  twentieth 
as  numerous  as  teachers.  In  other  words,  judged  by 
statistics,  the  teacher's  desk  is  thirty  times  more  attractive 


Courtesy  of  George  Herbert  Palmer 

Alice  Freeman  Palmer 


That  women  teachers  are  )iot  shut  out  from  the  larger  prizes  in  their 
profession  is  hriUiantly  demonstrated  in  the  career  of  Mrs.  Palmer. 


100  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

to  women  than  the  physician's  office,  fifty  times  more 
attractive  than  the  pulpit,  and  no  less  than  three  hundred 
times  more  attractive  than  the  bar. 

Nor  are  ^^•omen  teachers,  as  in  most  of  the  other 
professions,  cut  off  from  the  larger  prizes.  In  New  York 
City  they  are,  by  law,  given  the  same  pay  as  men,  and  the 
salaries  of  the  class  instructors  run  beyond  two  thousand 
dollars  a  year;  those  of  the  principals  beyond  three.  The 
ten  and  fifteen  thousand  dollars  a  year,  which  falls  to  the 
head  mistresses  of  a  few  ultra-fashionable  girls'  schools, 
is  quite  beyond  the  dreams  of  any  mere  man  principal. 
The  presidents  of  Mount  Holyoke,  Wellesley,  and  Bryn 
Mawr  colleges  are  all  women.  So,  too,  for  some  years, 
was  the  superintendent  of  schools  in  Chicago,  at  ten 
thousand  dollars  a  >'ear.  Throughout  the  country,  women 
arc  school  principals,  town,  county,  and  state  super- 
intendents, school  inspectors,  professors  and  heads  of 
departments  in  colleges,  or  are  managing  educational 
enterprises  of  their  own. 

Nowhere  in  the  teaching  profession,  probabh-  nowhere 
in  any  profession,  has  any  man  had  so  brilliant  a  career 
as  was  that  of  Alice  Freeman  Palmer,  nearly  a  half  century 
ago.  At  twenty-two  years  of  age  she  was  at  the  head  of 
an  important  high  school ;  at  twenty-six  she  was  president 
of  a  college,  %vith  a  salary  of  four  thousand  dollars  a  year. 


CHAPTER  XII 

The  Medical  Group 

WITH  the  medical  professions  we  pass  to  a  different 
type  of  man.  Lawyer,  clergyman,  and  teacher  arc 
all  much  the  same  sort  of  person  —  a  little  more  here  or 
a  little  less  there  changes  one  into  the  other.  All  three  are, 
so  to  say,  humanists;  they  deal  with  individual  human 
beings,  and  they  make  their  way  to  success  largely  by 
their  understanding  of  personaHty. 

The  physician  also  deals  with  persons.  But  unlike 
the  client  or  the  parishioner  or  the  pupil,  the  patient, 
besides  being  a  person,  is  also  a  thing,  a  highly  complex 
and  delicate  piece  of  machinery  which  has  become  out 
of  order  and  is  to  be  set  right.  The  physician,  therefore, 
while  he  has  much  in  common  with  the  teacher,  the  clergy- 
man, and  the  lawyer,  has  no  less  in  common  with  the  man 
of  science  and  the  engineer.  As  the  one  type  is  the 
professionalized  retail  salesman,  so  the  other  is  the  pro- 
fessionalized mechanic.  The  physician  straddles  between 
the  two. 

Throughout  the  entire  history  of  human  thought, 
scientific  discovery  and  the  art  of  medicine  have  hung 
together.  More  than  half  the  great  scientists  of  the 
Middle  Ages  were  physicians.  Huxley,  Agassiz,  and 
\^irchow,  among  a  host  of  lesser  names,  belong  almost  to 
our  own  time.  More  and  more,  also,  as  time  goes  on,  the 
physician  tends  to  become  pathologist,  chemist,  bacteriol- 
ogist, and  sanititian. 

The  boys,  therefore,  who  will  make  good  doctors  are 
much  the  same  as  those  who  will  make  scientific  men 

lOT 


102 


Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 


or  engineers.  They  are  the  sort  of  persons  who  in  yuutli 
make  collections  of  all  sorts,  are  clever  at  tools,  like  to 
tinker  with  clocks  and  run  engines,  and  who,  if  they  live 
near  the  railwa\',  know  each  locomotive  by  its  whistle. 
Every  one  knows  the  tyi)e,  ])ractical  rather  than  book- 
ish, sometimes  more  or  less  offish  and  unsocial. 

By  the  time  he  reaches  the  high  school,  the  boy  who  is  to 
succeed  in  medicine  should  have  done  well  at  whatever 
has  come  to  him  in  the  way  of  drawing  and  shop  work, 
and  have  a  distinct  bias  toward  the  sciences.  As  we 
cannot  imagine  a  successful  lawyer  who  did  not  do  well 
in  his  Latin  and  history,  no  more  can  we  imagine  a 
successful  physician  who  did  not  do  well  in  his  chemistry. 
Chemistry  is,  in  fact,  of  all  high-school  studies  the  most 
like  the  daily  practice  of  medicine,  and  the  best  try-out 
of  the  doctor-to-be. 

Like  the  lawyers,  moreover,  the  doctors  are  distinctly 


Brow  u  Br»is. 


The  hoy  who  tinkers  with  clocks  and  likes  to  run  engines  is  the  sort 
of  hoy  who  makes  a  good  doctor,  engineer,  or  scientific  man 


I'lic  Medical  Group 


103 


Brown  Bros. 


The  doctor-to-he  who  does  not  do  well  in  his  high-school  chemistry 
has  slight  chance  of  success  in  the  medical  profession 

a  picked  body  of  especially  able  men,  even  in  the  profes- 
sional group.  The  physician-to-be,  therefore,  though  his 
strength  lies  in  a  different  field,  should  fairly  match  his 
brother  of  the  bar  in  class  marks,  and  be  able  to  pass 
easily  any  high-school  subject.  High  general  ability, 
then,  in  addition  to  the  special  quality,  marks  the 
medical   mind. 

The  special  quality  seems  largely  to  take  the  fomi  of 
very  uncommon  powers  of  observation,  together  with 
an  especially  shar])  \isual  mcniory.  For  it  is  a  common- 
place of  modern  psychology  that  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  "the  memory."  Different  persons  do  their  remem- 
bering in  quite  different  ways,  and  even  with  different 
parts  of  their  brains.  Apparently,  our  memory  type  is 
largely  born  in  us;  certainly,  its  native  quality  is  not 
improved  by  education. 

Some  of  v:s,  when  we  stand  up  to  recite,  hear  an  inner 
voice  telling  us  what  to  say.      Such  persons  do  most  of 


104  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

their  best  thinking  in  the  auditor}^  area,  low  down  over 
the  left  ear.  Those  of  us  who  cannot  study  without 
making  our  mouths  go,  think  principally  with  a  spot  in 
Broca's  convolution.  Miss  Helen  Keller,  who  knows 
neither  sound  nor  sight,  probabl>-  does  her  thinking  well 
up  toward  the  top  of  her  head  in  the  part  of  the  brain 
which  manages  the  fingers. 

But  artists,  draftsmen,  artisans  and  mechanics,  natural- 
ists and  other  men  of  science  in  general,  and  all  successful 
physicians,  nurses,  dentists,  and  other  medical  persons 
in  particular,  do  most  of  their  thinking  and  remembering 
in  the  so-called  "visual  area,"  about  under  the  hatband 
between  the  side  of  the  head  and  the  back;  and  tend 
to  remember  everything  by  the  way  it  appears.  Such  a 
visualizer  learns  a  lesson  by  the  appearance  of  the  printed 
page,  and  when  he  comes  to  recite  calls  up  so  sharp  a 
mental  picture  before  his  mind's  eye  that  he  simply  reads 
off  what  he  wishes  to  say. 

The  sharpness  of  some  of  these  inner  photographs  is 
almost  beyond  belief  by  persons  who  do  equally  good 
thinking  in  other  ways.  Many  a  good  visualizer,  having 
memorized  a  page,  can  read  the  text  backwards  from  his 
mental  picture,  or  run  his  mind's  eye  down  the  margin 
and  tell  the  first  or  the  last  word  of  each  line.  Paul 
Morphy  used  to  play  six  games  of  chess  at  once,  and 
win  them  all,  without  seeing  any  of  the  boards.  An 
equally  sharp  "clinical  picture"  is  the  basis  of  all  suc- 
cessful treatment  of  disease. 

With  this  visual  memory  must  go  most  uncommon 
powers  of  observation.  The  original  "Sherlock  Holmes" 
was  an  Edinburgh  physician;  and  every  practitioner  of 
medicine  has  to  "do  the  Sherlock  Holmes  act"  during 
every  hour  of  his  working  day.  In  other  words,  no  small 
part  of  the  doctor's  business  is  to  infer  the  patient's  inner 


The  Medical  Group  lOj 

condition  by  means  of  outward  signs  that  are  too  small 
for  other  people  to  notice  at  all.  Accuracy  of  inference 
is  a  good  deal  a  matter  of  practice ;  but  the  basic  power  of 
obsen.'ation  seems  to  be  largely  a  natural  gift. 

To  those  who  have  not  this  native  gift,  the  powers  of 
those  who  have  it  seem  almost  uncann}'.  I  have  seen  a 
company  get  down  on  their  knees  and  hunt  four-leafed 
clovers  until  they  were  tired;  and  then  have  seen  a  child 
of  ^sculapius  walk  once  across  the  lawn,  and  occasion- 
ally stooping  to  pick  a  leaf,  gather  more  than  all  the 
rest  together.  I  once,  by  way  of  experiment,  handed 
two  half  dollars  to  a  group  of  young  people,  and  asked 
them  to  tell  me  whether  the  two  were  exactly  alike.  All 
l)ut  one  declared  that  the  two  coins  were  precisely  iden- 
tical in  every  respect.  One  boy,  on  the  contrary,  said  at 
once,  "The  D  under  the  bird's  tail  is  sHghtly  ti'lted  in  one 
coin,  and  the  ends  of  the  ribbon  tliat  holds  the  wreath 
are  farther  apart  by  about  t\\'ice  the  thickness  of  a  sheet 
of  paper."  Then  the}'  all  looked  again  and  agreed  that 
he  was  right.  That  particular  boy,  it  happens,  hopes 
to  study  medicine.  If  he  does,  and  fails  in  his  profes- 
sion, it  will  be  for  some  other  reason  than  that  he  lets 
symptoms  get  by  him. 

If  then  it  is  true,  as  Ruskin  used  to  declare,  that  "there 
are  ten  men  who  can  do  to  one  who  can  think,  and  ten 
men  who  can  think  to  one  who  can  see,"  all  but  one 
per  cent  of  the  population  is,  on  the  face  of  it,  cut  ofif  from 
the  successful  practice  of  medicine.  But  the  visual 
imagination  and  the  faculty  of  observation  are  not  in 
the  eyes  but  in  the   brain. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  certain  excellences  essen- 
tial to  some  other  professions  for  which  the  medical  man 
has,  practically,  so  little  use  that  many  persons  have 
won  the  highest  success  without  them.      Physicians,  as 


■ 

^^^H 

'^^^l^^gtt^  ^ 

■ 

^^ 

Hj^^^^H 

^^^^^^^^^Ktm^mKM^ 

^^                       ^^^^^^1 

H 

^^^^^^Mk.      '^^1 

H 

^^^HH^^^^ll 

^^^Kifl 

H^H 

The  Halliday  Historic  Photonraph  Co. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 

Though  best  knoivn  to  the  public  as  poet,  novelist,  essayist,  and  wit. 
Dr.  Holmes  'was  by  training  a  physician,  and  was  for  many  years 
teacher  of  human  anatomy  at  the  Harvard  Medical  School.  He  belonged 
to  a  professio7ial  family,  all  his  special  gifts  occurring  among  his 
relatives,  so  that  he  is  remarkable  only  for  the  unusual  combination. 
This  portrait  brings  out  especially  the  qualities  of  the  physician. 


llie  Medical  Group  loy 

a  whole,  arc  notoriously  poor  public  speakers.  The  vis- 
ualizing type  of  mind  apparently  does  not  lend  itself 
easily  to  oratory,  or  even,  at  times,  to  reasonably  effect- 
ive talk.  Cajjacity  for  leadership,  also,  is  so  uncommon 
that  few  physicians  have  ever,  in  this  country,  had 
much  popular  influence  or  been  elected  to  important 
public  office.  Characteristically,  it  has  been  the  non- 
democratic  states,  like  Germany,  where  medical  men 
have  done  conspicuous  puljlic  service. 

Nor  are  physicians,  as  a  whole,  anj'^thing  like  so  force- 
ful or  aggressive  persons  as  are,  let  us  say,  lawyers, 
business  men,  engineers,  or  even  the  clergy.  Neither,  as 
a  whole,  are  they  especially  social,  tactful,  "clubable." 
In  fact,  a  shy,  awkward,  unsocial,  one  may  fairly  say 
bcarlike  type,  has  not  infrequently  gone  to  the  very 
front  rank  of  the  medical  group.  No  ]:)rofession  de- 
mands more  absolutely  the  solid  qualities  of  character, 
or  dispenses  more  easily  with  the  lighter  ones. 

Medicine,  furthermore,  is  not  only  among  the  most 
exacting  of  all  the  professions  in  the  native  quality  which 
it  demands;  in  addition,  it  is  of  all  professions  the  most 
severe  in  its  ideals  of  training. 

Johns  Hopkins,  which  is  on  the  w^hole  the  leading  medi- 
cal school  of  the  country,  bcgitis  by  charging  two  hundred 
and  fort}'  dollars  a  year  tuition  besides  fees;  and  then 
limits  its  classes  to  ninety  students,  taking  only  the  best 
of  all  those  who  apply.  It  admits  no  persons  except 
graduates  of  designated  colleges  and  scientific  schools, 
and  even  then  insists  on  their  ha\'ing  had  thorough 
instruction  in  physics,  chemistry,  and  biology,  and  prov- 
ing their  ability  to  read  French  and  Gemian.  Only  in 
the  case  of  vacancies  are  a  few  exceptionally  qualified 
persons  taken  o\^er  from  other  schools.  Of  all  educational 
institutions  in  the  entire  world,  this  probably  has  the 


io8  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

straitest  gate.  Several  other  medical  schools  receive 
onlv  graduates  of  approved  colleges.  Some  others, 
equally  good,  concede  something  to  students  who  stand 
near  the  top  of  their  college  classes  and  have  had  two 
vears  of  pre-mcdical  subjects,  exen  if  they  have  not 
graduated.  Four  >'ears  in  a  good  high  school,  one  or 
two  years  of  specified  subjects  in  college,  and  one  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  a  year  tuition  is  about  the  lowest  limit 
of  an  institution  whose  degree  is  worth  having  at  any 
price. 

I'he  good  schools  drive  their  students  hard  for  four 
years,  frankly  weeding  out  the  incompetents  who  cannot 
stand  the  pace.  The  general  practice  is  to  carry  through 
to  graduation  hardly  more  than  half  of  those  who  enter. 
The  other  half  is  cut  oft"  from  its  ambition  before  ever 
it  comes  to  its  Senior  year.  In  addition,  from  seventy 
to  ninety  per  cent  of  medical  graduates,  after  taking  their 
diplomas,  spend  one  or  two  years  as  hospital  internes 
before  beginning  practice.  There  is  a  strong  movement 
under  way  for  the  states  to  require  this  additional  year 
before  granting  a  license  to  practice.  A  few  medical 
schools  now  demand  a  fifth  year  as  research  student  or 
interne  before  giving  even  the  medical  degree. 

In  short,  success  in  medicine  presupposes,  in  addition 
to  rare  natural  parts,  a  longer,  a  more  rigorous,  and  a 
more  expensive  training  than  any  other  vocation.  The 
issues  of  life  and  death  are  in  the  physician's  hands. 
Whoso  cannot  fit  himself  adequately  for  his  high  office 
should  seek  a  trade  where  he  will  be  less  dangerous 
to  mankind. 

Unfortunately,  however,  the  public,  speaking  through 
its  representatives,  has  tended  to  be  much  easier  on  the 
doctors  than  they  are  on  themselves.  Each  of  our  forty- 
eight  states  has  its  own  licensing  board,  and  its  own 


The  Medical  Group 


log 


standards.  In  more  than  half  of  these  the  law  allows  the 
lioard  to  refuse  recognition  to  the  graduates  of  the  low- 
grade  schools.  All  medical  degrees  look  alike  to  the 
remainder;  while  one  of  our  states,  which  shall  be  name- 
less, as  late  as  19 12  licensed  to  prey  upon  the  conmiunity 
no  fewer  than  one  hundred  and  sevent}'-fi\^e  indi\dduals 
who  had  not  graduated  from  any  medical  school  —  yet, 
notwithstanding  this,  admission  to  the  medical  profession 


Brown  Broa. 

In  the  dispensary,  Harlem  Hospital.     A  year  of  actual  practice  as 

an  interne  is  part  of  the  rigorous  training  required  by  some 

of  the  best  medical  schools  before  granting  a  degree 

is  more  carefully  guarded  by  law  than  is  entrance  to  any 
other  human  occupation. 

Of  late  years  there  has  been  a  determined  effort  to 
freeze  out  the  ill-equipped  institutions,  an  effort  that 
has  been  so  far  successful  that  in  the  nine  years  following 
1894  no  fewer  than  fifty-six  went  to  the  wall,  and  the  total 
number  in  the  country  dropped  to  one  hundred  and  ten. 
Even  this  number,  however,  nearly  equals  that  of  all  the 


iiu  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

rest  of  the  world  together,  and  exceeds  by  twenty-two 
the  number  of  medical  schools  in  France,  where  the 
standard  of  medical  education  has  long  been  thought  to 
be  the  highest  anywhere.  At  latest  accounts,  twenty-five 
institutions  in  sixteen  different  states  are  rated  by  the 
American  Medical  Association  to  be  of  the  first  grade, 
with  thirty  more  that  are  on  the  whole  adequate.  With 
the  ample  opportunity  offered  by  these  fifty-five  schools, 
to  enter  the  medical  profession  ill-prepared  is  little  short 
of  murder. 

The  practical  result  of  tolerating  something  like  a 
hundred  ill-equip]3ed  and  often  fraudulent  (Uploma  mills, 
all  largely  dependent  on  their  fees,  and  all  bidding  for 
students  no  matter  how  ill-prepared,  has  been  to  over- 
crowd most  scandalously  the  lower  ranks  of  the  profes- 
sion. Thei'e  is  now  in  the  United  States  one  physician 
to  each  six  hundred  possible  patients,  as  against  one  to 
two  or  three  thousand  of  the  population  in  Germany. 
Meanwhile,  the  high-grade  schools  alone  are  adding 
another  two  thousand  physicians  each  year,  until  there 
are  now  some  twenty  thousand  too  many  in  this  country. 

The  effect  is  the  same  as  we  have  already  seen  it  in  the 
law.  To  quote  a  late  report  of  the  Carnegie  Foundation 
on  medical  education  in  the  United  States  and  Canada: 
"  In  a  town  of  two  thousand  people  one  will  find,  in  most 
of  our  states,  from  five  to  eight  physicians,  where  two 
well-trained  men  could  do  the  work  efficiently  and  make 
a  competent  livchhood,"  and  alas,  the  physician,  unlike 
the  lawyer,  cannot  turn  to  business  or  fall  back  on  politics 
for  a  living. 

Worst  of  all,  while  the  poorly  equipped  lawyer  will 
perforce  confine  himself  to  unimportant  cases  that  are 
within  his  range,  and  the  clergyman  of  slender  parts  may 
minister  usefully  to  a  small  parish,  the  ill-trained  physician 


The  Medical  Group  iii 

meets  the  same  fatal  diseases  as  the  most  learned,  while 
the  life  of  the  poor  or  ignorant  man  who  employs  him  is 
worth  just  as  much  to  himself  as  any  other  man's  to  him. 
Yet  matters  have  actually  come  to  such  a  pass  that  an 
Eskimo  beyond  the  Arctic  Circle,  or  a  native  in  a  breech- 
clout  east  of  Suez,  wherever  the  medical  missionary  sets 
up  his  improvised  dispensary,  may  get  more  competent 
medical  care  than  falls  to  the  lot  of  thousands  of  persons 
in  the  United  States.  Even  more  than  the  law,  and  as  a 
point  of  conscience  as  well  as  a  matter  of  income,  medicine 
is  a  profession  for  mediocre  persons  of  slender  opportunity 
to  keep  away  from. 

Medicine,  however,  unlike  the  other  three  ancient  pro- 
fessions, is  expanding  rapidly.  New  branches  keep  bud- 
ding out  from  the  old  trunk.  Whole  new  departments, 
like  tropical  medicine  and  public  sanitation,  have  de- 
veloped within  half  a  generation.  Each  year  there  arc 
new  uses  discovered  for  sound  medical  knowledge.  The 
state  of  Michigan,  for  example,  has  lately  undertaken 
a  crusade  against  tuberculosis  which  will  in\'olve  the 
inspection  of  many  thousands  of  persons,  the  teaching 
of  thousands  more,  and  the  education  of  public  opinion 
ever\'where.  Evidently,  this  work  will  take  a  somewhat 
different  type  of  man  from  the  old-fashioned  practitioner 
of  medicine.  New  York  City  maintains  special  research 
laboratories  and  still  other  diagnostic  laboratories  where 
the  workers,  though  medically  trained,  are  not  practi- 
tioners at  all,  and  are  often  men  to  whom  bedside  or 
office  practice  does  not  especially  appeal.  There  is  a 
vast  and  growing  amount  of  patrol  work  in  tenements 
and  factories,  in  meat  markets  and  bakeries  and  milk 
stations,  of  "carriers"  of  infectious  disease  and  of  foci 
of  their  spread,  which  is  all  strictly  medical  work,  and 
all  for  the  most  part  under  control  of  medical  men,  and 


112  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

yet  which  is  not  at  all  what  the  medical  student  of  a 
generation  ago  looked  forward  to.  All  this  takes  well- 
trained  men.  The  result  is  that  with  all  the  plethora 
at  the  bottom  of  the  profession,  there  is  no  more  than 
healthy  competition  toward  the  top. 

On  the  other  hand,  medicine,  especially  in  the  cities, 
is  the  hardest  of  all  professions  in  which  to  get  a  start. 
A  yoiHig  teacher  or  a  yoimg  clergyinan  is  more  likely  to 
be  able  to  marry  during  his  first  year  than  is  a  young 
doctor  to  pay  his  office  rent.  One  and  two  hundred 
dollars  to  the  good  out  of  the  first  tweh^e  months'  prac- 
tice is  by  no  means  a  discouraging  beginning  even  for 
the  best-trained  man.  Several  who  in  the  end  have 
gone  far  have  had  to  wait  four  and  five  years  before  they 
touched  half  the  wages  of  the  nurses  under  them.  In 
fact,  it  is  reported  of  a  class  three  years  out  of  a 
famous  school,  that  when  at  a  commencement  reunion 
they  indulged  in  a  heart-to-heart  talk  over  their  pro- 
fessional incomes,  it  transpired  that  the  man  who  led 
the  class  in  earnings  had  abandoned  medicine  and  gone 
to  selling  yeast  cakes! 

When,  however,  the  graduates  of  the  good  schools  do 
get  imder  way,  they  commonly  do  nearly  as  well  as  the 
lawyers.  In  the  larger  cities,  fifteen  hundred  dollars  a 
year  is  reported  as  about  the  average  for  well-trained  men 
under  thirty.  Good  men,  established  in  the  country 
towns,  loin  to  two  and  three  thousand  dollars  a  year, 
while  about  one  man  in  the  himdred  builds  a  city  practice 
worth  ten  times  as  much  as  this.  Medical  professorships 
pay  about  the  same  as  those  in  other  institutions ;  but  the 
medical  man  who  teaches  has  a  better  chance  than  any 
other  except  the  engineer  to  do  highly  paid  expert  work 
outside  the  classroom.  Salaries  in  the  various  sorts  of 
public-health    service    start    for    beginners    below    two 


The  Medical  Group  iij 

thousand  dollars,  and  rise  with  experience  to  the  neigh- 
borhood of  four  thousand.  The  medical  missionaries 
sacrifice   themselves   for  one   thousand  dollars   a    year. 

Individual  earnings  in  the  medical  profession,  like 
those  in  the  law,  may  be  an^^thing.  Sixty  thousand 
dollars  a  year  is  said  to  be  the  limit  from  a  regular  prac- 
tice in  this  country ;  though  abroad  a  medical  income  may 
pass  the  hundred  thousand  mark.  Ten  to  twenty-five 
dollars  an  hour  is  the  ordinary  fee  of  a  spcciaHst.  One 
famous  consultant  testified  in  court  that  his  practice 
rose  at  times  to  six  hundred  dollars  a  day :  single  fees  have 
gone  as  high  as  ten  thousand  dollars.  Lorenz,  the  great 
Austrian  orthopedist,  is  said  to  have  taken  home  not  much 
short  of  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  as  the  proceeds  of 
a  six  weeks'  tour  in  America.  At  any  rate,  he  charged 
two  thousand  dollars  for  a  short  operation  on  a  rich  man's 
daughter,  and  then,  doctor-like,  did  the  same  thing  for 
nothing  on  the  cliildren  of  the  poor,  forty  times  over  in 
one  city.  Also,  he  declined  one  of  the  largest  fees  ever 
offered  to  any  professional  man  as  contrary  to  professional 
etiquette. 

One  thing  with  another,  therefore,  medicine,  although 
hopelessly  overcrowded  at  the  bottom  with  the  ill- 
equipped,  offers  distinctly  better  paid  work  for  the  com- 
petent man  than  does  either  teaching  or  the  ministry, 
while  on  its  liigher  levels  it  stands  not  much  below  the 
law. 

Like  the  law,  medicine  is  now  becoming  highly  special- 
ized, and  each  special  field  offers  its  own  peculiar  attrac- 
tions to  a  slightly  different  kind  of  man.  Surgery,  in 
particular,  is  now  almost  a  separate  profession,  in  which 
at  least  one  man  has  become  highly  eminent  by  virtue  of 
his  extraordinary  skill  of  hand  who  would  hardly  have 
passed  mediocrity  as  a  general  practitioner.' 

8 


IT4  I'ocatioiial  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

Women  <lo  not  often  become  surgeons.  Medicine,  on 
the  other  hand,  attracts  them  somewhat  strongly,  so  that 
at  last  accounts  they  numbered  about  ten  per  cent  of 
the  men,  while  their  proportion  is  steadily  growing. 
Many  of  these  women  become  medical  missionaries. 
The  remainder  commonly  choose  to  limit  their  practice 
to  their  own  sex  and  to  children. 

NURSING 

Since  the  recent  and  phenomenal  rise  of  nursing  into 
a  profession,  a  considerable  majority  of  the  women 
whose  vocation  is  toward  medicine  have  preferred  the 
newer  to  the  older  side.  Nursing  is,  indeed,  the  most 
feminized  by  far  of  all  the  professions,  the  women  out- 
numbering the  men  nearh'  twenty  to  one. 

The  fact  is,  men  rarely  make  good  nurses.  They  have 
a  limited  field  as  attendants  on  men  and  among  the 
dangerously  insane,  but  otherwise  the  public  vastly 
prefers  women.  For  all  this,  there  are  some  thousands 
of  doctors  of  medicine  in  the  country  \\'ho  would  be 
distinctly  better  ofi  in  pocket  and  \'astl\'  more  useful 
to  their  fellow  men,  if  their  time  and  effort  had  been  spent 
in  making  them  well-trained  nurses  instead  of  the  sort 
of  physicians  they  actually  are. 

The  girl  who  is  going  into  nursing  does  not  differ 
appreciably  in  mental  type  from  the  boy  who  is  going 
to  practice  medicine;  so  that  all  that  has  been  said  of 
the  one  applies  in  about  equal  degree  to  the  other.  She 
has,  however,  this  very  great  advantage  over  the  doctor, 
that  she  can  give  herself  a  more  thorough  and  con- 
vincing try-out  than  is  possible  for  any  other  profession, 
or  indeed  for  almost  any  other  vocation. 

For  after  all,  nursing  is  largely  a  sort  of  professionalized 
housekeeping.     Making  beds  for  sick  people  is  a  good 


The  Medical  Group 


115 


deal  the  same  as  making  beds  for  well  people.  Cooking 
for  invalids  is  still  cooking.  Caring  for  more  or  less 
helpless  strangers  is  not  especially  different  from  tending 


Brown  Bros. 


Cooking  for  sick  persons  is  after  all  a  good  deal  like  cooking  for 

■well  ones,  and  the  nurse  therefore  finds  that  her  work 

is  largely  housekeeping  professionalized 

one's  own  little  brothers  and  sisters.  Moreover,  there 
are  not  man}-  households  where  a  girl  cannot  test  herself 
on  a  case  of  actual  illness.  It  is  impossible  to  imagine 
even  a  fairly  good  nurse  who  would  not  also  have  made 


ii6 


Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 


Brown  Bros. 


The  district  nurse  is  called  upon  particularly  to  be  a  friend  of  the 

people.     She  must  care  for  helpless  strangers  as  well  and  as 

cheerfully  as  for  her  own  little  brothers  and  sisters 

an  extraordinarily  good  housemaid  or  cook,  and  who  was 
not  also  a  good  daughter. 

The  first  test  of  a  nurse-to-be,  therefore,  is  that  she  shall 
really  like  housework,  shall  take  pride  in  it,  and  shall 
not  inind  the  long  hours,  the  loneliness,  or  the  monotony 
that  often  go  with  it.  The  nurse-that -is  will  have  to 
do  like  work,  for  much  longer  hours,  and  be  a  great  deal 
more  alone.  The  second  test  is  that  she  shall  really  like 
caring  for  the  sick  or  dependent,  shall  be  a  friend  to  old 
people,  and  a  good  elder  sister. 

After  that  comes,  at  the  hands  of  other  people,  a  rigid 
inquiry  into  character,  health,  and  scholarship  before 
a  hospital  will  take  the  candidate.  In  addition  to  that 
is  a  probation  period  of  from  two  to  six  months,  whicli 


The  Medical  Group 


117 


weeds  out  from  half  to  three  quarters  of  even  the  picked 
body  that  has  passed  the  earlier  tests.  Finally  comes 
the  try-out  of  twelve  hours'  work  a  day,  seven  days  in 
the  week,  and  fifty  weeks  in  the  year. 

The  result  is  that  the  selected  group  that  finally  wins 
through  to  its  R.N.  is  virtually  certain  of  success.  Nurses 
sometimes  ruin  their  health  by  overwork,  but  aside  from 
this  the  graduates  of  the  good  schools  are  sure  of  all  they 
care  to  do. 

Like  the  other  branch  of  the  medical  profession,  nursing 
is  becoming  highly  specialized.  There  are  army  nurses, 
Red  Cross  nurses,  school  nurses,  district  nurses,  office 
nurses.  Some  nurses  specialize  on  children,  some  on 
surgical  cases.  One  thing  with  another,  about  every 
special  .sort  of  physician  is  matched  by  a  special  sort  of 
nurse  in  the  same  field.  Besides  these,  there  are  impor- 
tant executive  positions,   such  as  head  nurses,   hospital 


Brown  Broa. 

Ward  nurses  at  work.      Until  young  women  are  settled  in  their 

characters  they  are  useless  in  the  hospital  ward  as  well  as 

unhappy  under  its  rigorous  discipline 


Ii8  {Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

superintendents,  and  the  like.  It  is,  tliereiore,  no  lunger 
true  that  all  nurses  have  to  go  without  sleep  or  to  endure 
any  special  hardships. 

By  way  of  preparation,  the  hospitals  demand  at  least 
a  high-school  diploma  and  greatly  prefer  a  college  degree. 
Virtually  no  girls  under  twenty-one  3'ears  of  age  arc 
taken,  for  until  3'oung  women  are  settled  in  their  char- 
acters and  well  beyond  the  silly  season  of  life,  they  are 
neither  of  any  use  "on  the  wards,"  nor  likely  to  be  happy 
under  the  rigorous  and  almost  prison-like  discipline  of 
the  hospital. 

The  training  course  consists  of  three  years'  work,  with 
opportunity  for  graduate  study.  Some  of  the  better 
schools  exact  a  small  fee;  some,  on  the  other  hand,  make 
a  small  payment  for  service.  One  and  all,  they  demand 
the  student's  entire  time  Avithout  respite.  Since,  how- 
ever, taking  the  course  through,  the  labor  of  a  nurse  in 
training  just  about  pays  for  her  keep,  the  profession  offers 
peculiar  attractions  to  the  girl  with  less  money  than 
brains. 

Considering  the  quality  of  the  women  who  take  up 
the  ])rofcssion,  nursing  is  rather  underpaid.  Twenty 
to  twenty-fi\e  dollars  a  week  and  board  is  the  usual 
wage  for  ])ri\ate  work.  But  the  labor  is  wearing  and 
incessant,  so  that  the  "case  nurse"  must  either  take  man\' 
\'acations  or  break  down.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  private 
nurses  too  commonly  last  onh'  about  ten  years  before 
they  have  to  give  up  and  try  some  other  vocation.  Sal- 
aried positions  usually  j^ay  about  a  thousand  dollars  a 
year,  though  administrative  work  may  bring  in  the 
region  of  fifteen  hundred  or  occa.sionally  two  thousand 
dollars.  Men  are  better  paid  for  the  lower  grades  of 
work,  fi\-e  dollars  a  da\-  to  the  women's  three,  but 
they  are  practically  cut  off  from   all   the  higher  le\'els 


I'he  Medical  Group 


119 


which   are   open   to   women,   since   here   they   meet   the 
competition  of  the  physicians. 

On  the  other  hand,  of  non-material  rewards,  the  nurse 
can  simply  take  her  choice  among  those  which  belong 


Brown  Bros. 


An  ambulance  aid  post,  "somewhere  in  France."     The  nurse  ivith 

the  adventurous  spirit  -will  find  ample  opportunities 

with  the  Red  Cross  in  the  field 

to  all  the  other  j^rofessions  together.  Does  she  love 
children?  There  are  the  schools,  the  children's  hospitals, 
and  the  new-bom  babies.  Does  she  esteem  the  work 
of  the  ministry?     She  can  take  heathen  land,  or  slum 


120  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

district,  or  factory,  or  department  store.  She  may  build 
her  Hfe  into  an  institution,  or  "hold  the  heartstrings  of 
families  in  her  hands."  Does  she  want  adventure ?  The 
medical  missionary  will  take  her  anywhere  he  can  go,  and 
the  Red  Cross  Society  will  send  her  anywhere  else. 

Beyond  this,  for  nurse  and  doctor  alike,  comes  that  of 
which  no  outsider  may  rightly  speak  —  the  solemn  oath  of 
yEsculapius;  the  memlDcrship  in  "the  only  world-wide 
guild,"  older  than  the  Christian  Church,  that  knows  no 
barrier  of  creed  or  race,  and  scr\'cs  its  members  everywhere 
without  price;  the  unifonn  that  is  passport  to  every  gate; 
the  personal  love  and  trust  that  make  nurse  and  doctor 
sometimes  closer  than  kin.  These  are  what  the  medical 
profession  lives  by. 

DENTISTRY 

The  dentist  is  the  medical  man  on  a  slightly  smaller 
scale.  Of  somewhat  less  natural  parts  to  begin  with,  he 
may  enter  even  the  best  dental  colleges  with  only  a  high- 
school  education  behind  him,  while  the  ordinary  profes- 
sional course  is  but  three  years.  The  cost  in  time, 
therefore,  is  about  the  same  as  for  nursing,  although  the 
money  cost  is  much  greater. 

Returns  are  distinctly  high.  Like  the  surgeon,  the 
dentist  is  at  the  same  time  both  a  professional  man  and 
a  mechanic,  who  sells  the  work  of  brains  and  hands 
together  for  a  double  price.  Dentists,  therefore,  though 
they  do  not  get  the  large  single  fees  of  great  surgeons  and 
consultants,  fairly  match  the  general  practitioners  in 
their  earnings.  A  very  few  exceptional  men  are  said  to 
have  touched  fifty  thousand  dollars  a  year. 

Apparenth'  it  is  the  large  clement  of  mechanics  in 
dentistry,  the  need  of  combining  the  workingman's  bod\' 
with  the  professional  man's  brain,  that  has  tended  to 


The  Medical  Group  121 

keep  women  out  of  the  business.  At  last  accounts,  they 
numbered  less  than  three  per  cent  of  the  dentists  in  the 
country,  notwithstanding  that  even  twenty  years  ago 
there  were  already  enough  women  dentists  to  fonn  their 
own  separate  national  association. 

Nor  is  there  anything  in  dentistry  corresponding  to  the 
nurse  in  medicine.  The  dentist's  assistant  commonly 
ranks  as  an  ordinary  office  worker,  and  is  not,  like  the 
physician's  office  nurse,  a  member  of  her  employer's 
profession. 


Courtesy  of  IT.  S.  GeoloKical  Survey 

Clarence  King  —  Organizer  and  first  Director  of  the 

United  States  Geological  vSurvey 

This  eminent  ^eolo^ist  and  srientist  worked  during  the  expansion 
JHriod  of  the  nation  ivhen  the  sciences  were  at  the  lowest  point  of  esteem 
and  reward  in  this  country:  but  he  was  content  in  the  fascination  oj 
the  work  and  through  it  won  lasting  repute. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

The  Scientific  Group 

THE  traditional  conflict  between  religion  and  science 
does  not  extend  to  money  matters.  There  is  no 
money  in  either.  Most  men  of  science,  like  most  clergy- 
men, are  on  salaries  —  and  the  salaries  are  about  cqualh' 
exiguous. 

To  the  scientific  man,  moreover,  are  denied  even  those 
social  rewards  which  fall  to  the  members  of  the  professions 
which  deal  with  human  beings.  The  scientist  deals  with 
things,  with  the  powers  of  nature,  with  abstractions.  Of 
necessity,  he  works  alone;  and  for  the  subject  of  his  labors 
the  public  does  not  commonly  care  a  fig.  In  no  civilized 
country  on  earth  are  scholars  and  men  of  science  so  little 
esteemed  or  so  poorly  rewarded  as  in  the  United  States. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  man  of  science  has  an  intcljcctual 
satisfaction  such  as  comes  to  no  other  worker.  He  is 
by  profession  a  "researcher."  It  is  his  business  to  find 
out  something  which  nobody  else  knows;  to  ]:)rovc,  where 
other  men  have  only  guessed.  He,  more  than  all  other 
men,  is  ever  "forgetting  those  things  which  are  behind 
and  reaching  forward  unto  those  things  which  are  before." 
For  the  little  group  of  men  and  women  who  like  this  sort 
of  thing,  it  is  the  most  fascinating  game  in  the  world. 

But,  although  our  countr\'  has  lagged  sadly  behind  in 
the  higher  sorts  of  scientific  achievement,  we  have  been 
doing  an  enomious  amount  of  good  work  on  the  middle 
levels.  The  United  States  government  maintains  bureaus 
of  mines,  plant  industries,  animal  industries,  fisheries, 
American  ethnology,  chemistry,  forestry,  soils,  statistics, 

123 


124  Vocational  Guidance  Jar  the  Professions 


r'ourtesy  of  ('.  S.  (iooloKioal  Survo>' 

Surveyors  at  work  for  the  United  Slates  Geological  Survey  among 
the  almost  inaccessible  crags  of  the  Rockies 

entomology,  standards,  and  weather.  There  is  the 
National  Astronomical  Observatory,  the  Coast  Survey, 
the  Biologieal  Survey,  the  United  States  Geologieal 
Survey,  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  and  the  National 
Museum.  Porto  Rico,  Hawaii,  and  Alaska  all  have 
agricultural  experiment  stations.  The  Philippine  Islands 
have  a  full-fledged  Bureau  of  Science. 


The  Scientific  Group  12 j 

All  these  various  bureaus  and  surveys  employ  an  im- 
mense throng  of  chemists,  Ijacteriologists,  veterinarians, 
pharmacologists,  geologists,  physicists,  botanists,  ento- 
mologists, zoologists,  topographers,  astronomers,  geode- 
sists,  foresters,  statisticians,  and  the  rest.  Their  work 
varies  from  inspecting  labels  under  the  pure-food  law  to 
reporting  on  the  coal  deposits  in  Alaska  or  exploring 
Central  Asia  for  useful  plants. 

Most  of  tliis  is  highly  specialized  exj^ert  work,  based 
on  at  least  four  years  of  training  beyond  the  high  school. 
Places  are  virtualh'  all  controlled  by  the  Civil  Service 
Commission,  and  are  entered  only  by  competitive  exami- 
nation. vSalaries  run  in  general  from  twelve  hundred  to 
two  thousand  dollars  or  more;  a  few  reach  four  and  five 
thousand. 

This  field  is  expanding  rapidly  as  the  government  takes 
on  more  and  more  functions  which  heretofore  have  been 
left  to  private  initiative  or  have  gone  unperformed.  In 
any  part  of  it,  a  well-equipped  man  of  scientific  tastes  is 
sure  of  some  sort  of  living,  a  fixed  tenure,  and  not  too 
much  to  do.  The  drawbacks  are  those  which  inhere  in 
all  government  emplo\Tiients — low  pay  for  good  work, 
promotion  by  other  factors  than  merit,  the  deadening 
effect  of  the  great,  stupid,  tape-bound  machine.  The 
best  men,  after  they  obtain  their  experience,  are  apt  to 
leave  the  government  service  and  take  up  private  work. 

Much  scientific  Avork  like  that  of  the  general  govern- 
ment is  done  also,  though  on  a  smaller  scale,  by  the  several 
states.  Many  of  these  have  their  own  scientific  staffs. 
Nearly  all  maintain  at  least  one  agricultural  experiment 
station.  The  last  vary  locally.  Some  are  doing  admir- 
able scientific  work;  but  in  too  many  the  call  is  still  for 
immediate  practical  results,  "less  about  karyokinesis  and 
more  about  ha  v." 


126 


Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 


The  statement  of  a  few  facts  will  indicate  the  scale  on 
which  this  sort  of  work  is  done.  The  combined  annual 
budget  of  sixty-four  experiment  stations  is  now  more 
than  three  millions  a  year.  The  California  station  alone 
has  five  thousand  acres  of  ground  and  a  million  dollars' 
worth  of  buildings. 

The  Department  of  Agriculture  spends  five  hundred 
thousand  dollars  a  year  on  its  printing  alone.     The  Bureau 


"The  Guide  to  Nature' 


A  small  private  laboratory  and  its  owner,  a  consulting  chemist 

of  Fisheries  devoted  forty  thousand  dollars  to  a  single 
study.  It  cost  the  Geological  Survey  into  six  figures  to 
look  into  the  mineral  resources  of  Alaska.  The  Bureau 
of  Mines  spends  well  above  half  a  million  dollars  a  year, 
and  the  Bureau  of  Standards  nearly  three  quarters  of  a 
million.  This  shows  the  scale  on  which  our  Uncle  Samuel 
operates,  and  the  wide  field  there  is  for  his  scientific 
nephews  and    nieces. 

A  few  more  facts  taken  from  a  single  field  will  show  the 


The  Scientific  Group  12^ 

scale  on  which  tliis  sort  of  work  will  have  to  be  done  in 
the  immediate  future.  It  was  shortly  after  1850  that  the 
«^^reat  Pasteur  did  his  famous  work  on  the  grape  mildew 
which,  introduced  into  Europe  from  America,  was  cutting 
down  the  grape  crop  of  France  to  a  twentieth  of  the  normal 
>'icld.  As  a  result,  Pasteur  not  only  saved  his  country 
incalculable  milHons,  but  what  has  proved  more  impor- 
tant, laid  the  foundation  of  the  science  of  plant  pathology. 
Yet  for  all  of  that,  a  single  rather  local  disease  of  the 
grape  has  cost  the  growers  of  CaHfomia  a  loss  into  the 
milHons;  while  the  pear  blight  alone  has  at  times  mulcted 
the  same  state  at  the  rate  of  a  million  dollars  a  year. 
The  potato  Wight  cost  the  farmers  of  New  York  ten  mil- 
lions in  1903.  The  wheat  rusts  have  hit  the  country  to 
the  tune  of  fifty  millions  in  a  single  year.  Six  hundred 
millions  annually  has  been  calculated  to  be  the  total  loss 
to  the  country  from  preventable  diseases  of  cultivated 
plants  alone. 

Preventable,  that  is  to  say,  after  some  American  Pasteur 
finds  out  how  to  prevent  them,  or  some  American  Biffin 
breeds  an  immune  stock.  But  with  the  present  zeal  for 
conservation,  it  can  hardly  be  many  years  before  there 
will  be  a  considerable  expansion  in  the  demand  for  workers 
in  this  department  of  botany.  And  this  is  only  one  corner 
of  the  possible  field  for  scientific  work;  while  for  every 
man  of  science  who  makes  a  great  discovery,  a  hundred 
lesser  men  will  be  needed  to  apply  it  in  detail. 

By  way  of  further  illustration  of  this  expanding  field, 
consider  on  the  side  of  animal  disease  the  recent  gift  of  a 
million  dollars  for  research,  the  half  million  which  Con- 
gress appropriates  to  fight  hog  cholera  alone.  Consider 
the  seventy-five  miUion  dollars  a  year  which  in  this  era  of 
high  prices  and  dear  food  the  country  loses  by  this  same 
hog  cholera;  the  eighty-five  million  dollars'  worth  of  cattle 


The  Scientific  Group  I2Q 

which  die  of  disease;  the  ten  million  lost  on  sheep;  the 
nearly  nine  million  lost  in  poultry.  Two  hundred  and 
thirteen  million  dollars  every  year  is  the  estimate  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  of  our  loss  from  animal 
diseases.  One  thing  with  another,  a  thousand  million 
dollars  a  year  are  at  stake;  and  ample  work  and  wages 
for  all  the  scientific  persons  who  can  mend  the  ill. 

Of  the  universities,  the  Carnegie  Institution,  the 
Rockefeller  Institute  for  Medical  Research,  and  the  like, 
there  is  little  need  to  speak.  These,  like  their  proto- 
types in  other  lands,  offer  some  of  the  highest  prizes  of  a 
scientific  career,  but  without  a  corresponding  wage. 

Nominally,  to  be  sure,  the  universities  pay  their  pro- 
fessors for  teaching  and  these  men  do  their  scientific  work 
as  an  avocation.  In  reality,  much  of  the  teaching  is 
nominal,  the  scientific  work  is  the  important  matter, 
and  the  pupils  are  really  assistants.  Much  scientific 
work,  moreover,  both  in  and  out  of  the  universities,  is 
helped  out  by  the  grants  of  the  Carnegie  Institution, 
Luther  Burbank  alone  getting  ten  thousand  dollars  a  year 
from  this  source. 

The  interesting  field  just  now,  however,  is  the  indus- 
trial. Twenty-five  years  ago  there  was  virtually  no  indus- 
trial science  in  America.  The  cotmtry  was  still  new;  land 
could  be  had  for  the  asking.  Nobody  thought  it  worth 
while  to  save  by  stopping  little  leaks.  Industries  were 
universally  in  the  hands  of  ignorant,  rule-of -thumb 
foremen,  and  fixed  in  an  eternal  state  by  immemorial 
tradition. 

Typical  of  these  good  old  days  are  the  large-scale 
planter  who  imported  lime  by  the  shipload  for  his  fields, 
while  all  the  time  a  great  limestone  cliff  stood  opposite 
his  front  door;  or  the  glass  maker  who  wasted  seventy- 
five  dollars'  worth  of  niter  everv  dav  because  at  another 


iju  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  ProJ'essioiis 

time,  \-ears  before,  a  long-departed  foreman  had  needed 
it  for  a  particular  lot  of  sand.  E\'en  so  late  as  the 
American  Mining  Congress  of  1916,  there  transpired  the 
case  of  an  iron  mine  that  had  been  running  at  a  reason- 
able profit  for  seventy  years,  unscientifically.  Then  the 
management  hired  a  young  superintendent  who  had 
studied  chemistr\'.  He  promptly  discovered  that  his 
mine  contained  zinc  in  such  quantity  that  ever  since 
the  mine  had  been  opened,  the  zinc  thrown  away  had 
been  worth  more  than  the  iron  that  had  been  saved. 
Now  the  enterprise  is  operating  as  a  zinc  mine  with 
iron  as  a  by-product.  The  famous  mines  of  Leadville 
have  had  a  like  history.  Wherever  we  turn,  we  find 
that  American  industry  has  flourished  because  of  cheap 
raw  material  and  fuel,  the  insatiate  demands  of  a  grow- 
ing population,  and  an  office  management  that  partly 
offset  the  inefficiency  of  the  shops. 

To-day,  however,  the  cotmtry  is  fuli;  and  we  begin 
to  feel  the  pressure  of  population  somewhat  as  it  has 
long  been  felt  in  Europe.  Meanwhile,  the  Gennans,  by 
putting  their  university  graduates  into  the  shops,  have 
made  several  of  their  industries  so  efficient  that  they 
have  virtually  ousted  all  other  nations  from  several 
profitable  markets,  and  got  a  full  generation  the  start 
over  the  rest  of  Christendom. 

We  in  this  country  are  just  beginning  to  wake  up  to 
the  possibilities  of  "catalyzing  raw  material  by  brains." 
Andrew  Carnegie  was  about  the  first  American  to  try  the 
experiment  on  a  large  scale,  by  applying  chemistry  to  the 
steel  industry.  And  it  brought  him,  first  and  last,  a 
pretty  penny,  although  several  different  investigations 
were  at  a  cost  well  beyond  the  hundred  thousand  dollar 
mark. 

Other  large  companies  have  followed  the  example  of 


HartBook 


Luther  Blrbank  —  Breeder  of  plants 

Mr.  Biirbank  receives  ten  thousand  dollars  a  year  from  the  Carnegie 
Institution,  but  this  is  little  compared  with  the  enormous  benefit  the 
country  derives  from  his  work.  The  picture  brinies  out  well  the  hands, 
which  are  typically  those  of  the  skillful  manipulator  and  essential  to 
success  in  any  of  the  biological  sciences,  including  medicine. 


IJ2  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

the  United  States  Steel  Corporation  and  the  German  fimis. 
The  DuPont  Company,  which  for  more  than  a  hundred 
years  has  been  making  gmipowder  and  high  explosives, 
now  has  three  sets  of  laboratories  in  which  are  employed 
two  hundred  and  fifty  professional  chemists.  The  East- 
man Kodak  Company,  the  General  Electric  Company, 
the  American  Telephone  Company,  and  at  least  fifty 
other  large  companies  maintain  scientific  staffs  and  spend, 
in  several  instances,  as  much  as  three  hundred  thousand 
dollars  a  year  on  scientific  research. 

In  most  of  these  large  and  well-organized  corporations, 
the  superintendents  of  the  departments  in  the  plant 
make  periodic  reports  to  the  research  department  of  all 
promising  ideas  of  their  own  or  of  any  of  their  assistants. 
In  the  same  way,  the  salesmen  report  regularly  all 
criticism  of  the  output  which  they  have  encountered, 
all  unexpected  uses  to  which  the  products  are  being 
put,  and  all  information  as  to  rival  goods  and  substitutes. 
The  scientific  staff  then  attempts  to  work  out  these 
suggestions.  So  far  as  they  succeed,  the  company  that 
emplo^^s  them  makes  one  more  step  in  advance  of  its 
competitors. 

Scientific  work,  well  organized,  is  enomiously  profitable 
to  the  manufacturer.  The  Du  Pont  Company  reckons  a 
profit  of  a  million  dollars  a  year  from  its  high-explosives' 
laboratories  alone.  Carborundum  and  acetylene  are 
recent  laborator}^  discoveries.  Aluminum  used  to  bring 
twelve  dollars  a  pound;  now  it  costs  less  than  thirty 
cents,  with  an  annual  output  of  forty  million  pounds. 
When  the  chemical  problem  of  handling  sulphur-bearing 
oils  was  finally  solved  by  Frasch,  the  price  of  Ohio  oil 
jumped  from  fourteen  cents  a  barrel  to  one  dollar,  on 
an  output  of  ninety  thousand   barrels  a  day. 

Within  a  few  years,  a  certain  large  baking  company 


The  Sciemific  Group 


J  33 


set  a  }-oung  scientist  at  work  in  a  little  laborator>-  in 
Pittsburgh  to  answer  a  certain  question  concerning  bread 
making.  They  paid  him  seven  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
a  year,  and  offered  an  additional  prize  of  two  thousand 
dollars  if  he  found  the  answer— as  he  did.  This  suggested 
additional  questions,  and  a  year  or  two  later  there  were 
three  men  at  work  in  the  same  laboratory  at  two  thousand 
dollars  a  year  each,  and  a  bonus  of  ten  thousand  dollars 


Brown  Bros. 

An  industrial  laboratory.     A  room  in  the  experimental  department 
of  the  Western  Electric  Company 

on  the  horizon.  The  bakers  concerned  reckon  that  they 
are  already  furnishing  better  bread  than  their  competitors 
and  saving  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  a  year 
on  their  former  costs. 

The  outcome  was  the  now  famous  Mellon  Institute. 
It  began  in  a  small  way,  but  within  a  year  or  two  there 
were,  among  other  young  men  of  science,  no  fewer  than 
nine  chemists  studying  petroleum  alone,  each  on  a  living 


1J4  Vocational  Cnidancc  Jor  the  Professions 

wage,  with  a  ten  per  cent  ro\alty  on  the  vakie  of  their 
findings.  Smaller  companies,  starting  new  and  lacking 
some  essential  for  their  process,  have  offered  a  quarter 
of  their  stock  as  bonus  for  the  discovery.  To-day,  the 
Institute  is  a  department  of  the  University  of  Pittsburgh, 
well  endowed,  well  equipped,  and  growing  so  rapidly 
that  no  account  of  its  condition  will  remain  adequate 
while  a  book  is  going  through  the  press.  Thus  the 
field  for  scientific  work  continues  to  grow. 

Meanwhile,  the  relations  between  the  universities  and 
the  great  industrial  plants  are  every  year  becoming 
closer  and  more  cordial.  The  Massachusetts  Institute 
of  Technology,  to  take  an  example  almost  at  random, 
will  hereafter  place  its  best  students,  for  a  portion  of 
their  course,  in  the  factories  and  shops  of  a  half  dozen 
important  industries  of  New  England  and  elsewhere, 
where  they  will,  on  the  one  hand,  become  familiar  with 
the  practical  side  of  the  subjects  which  they  pursue,  and 
on  the  other,  it  is  hoped,  help  the  scientific  progress  of 
the  business  enterprises.  Indeed,  at  least  one  finn  goes 
so  far  as  to  pay  the  student's  expenses.  Or  to  cite  a 
single  case  only  of  a  different  type,  the  National  Canners' 
Association  has  arranged  with  Har\-ard  University  to 
pay  twenty  thousand  dollars  a  year  for  three  years,  in 
return  for  a  thorough  study  of  the  subject  of  poisoning 
from  canned  goods. 

These  straws  show  which  way  the  wind  is  on  the  point 
of  blowing.  Even  now  it  has  become  difficult  to  find 
enough  men  to  carr\-  on  this  sort  of  investigation.  In  the 
near  future,  as  the  tendency  develops,  as  it  must,  the 
demand  will  be  still  greater.  The  work  is  directly  wealth- 
producing;  therefore  it  will  be  well  paid. 

The  general  outlook  for  some  half-dozen  sciences  is  well 
vSummed  up  in  the  words  of  a  president  of  the  American 


The  Scientific  (iroiip  ijj 

Chemical  Society  concerning  the  science  which  is  just 
now  in  the  lead: 

"We  need  a  multipHcation  of  research  laboratories  in 
special  industries,  each  with  an  adequate  staff  of  the  best 
men  obtainable,  and  an  equipment  which  gives  full  range 
to  their  abilities.  Modem  progress  can  no  longer  depend 
ui)on  accidental  discoveries.  Each  advance  in  industrial 
science  must  be  studied,  organized,  and  fought  like  a 
military  campaign. 

"Or  to  change  the  figure,  in  the  early  days  of  science, 
chemists  patrolled  the  shores  of  the  great  ocean  of  the 
unknown,  and  seizing  u]Don  such  fragments  of  truth  as 
drifted  within  their  reach,  timied  them  to  the  enrichment 
of  the  intellectual  and  material  life  of  the  community. 
Later,  they  ventured  timidly  to  launch  the  frail  and  often 
leaky  canoe  of  h>'pothcsis,  and  returned  with  richer 
treasure.  To-da\',  confident  and  resourceful  as  the  result 
of  man}'  argosies,  organized,  equipped,  they  sail  boldly 
on  a  charted  sea  in  stanch  ships  with  tiering  canvas, 
bound  for  new  El  Dorados." 

And  captains  and  crews  A\'ill  l^e  men  and  women  of 
scientific  tastes  who  have  discerned  the  signs  of  the  limes. 

Just  what  these  men  and  women  will  be  like  during 
their  high-school  course,  it  is  by  no  means  easy  to  say. 
Obviously,  their  tastes  will  be  "scientific,"  at  least  to 
the  extent  that  they  will  like  their  school  sciences  and  do 
reasonably  good  work  at  them.  And  yet  the  ordinar\' 
school  course  in,  let  us  say,  biolog\-  or  ph\'siography  is 
only  in  the  remotest  wa>'  a  test  of  either  scientific 
interest  or  aptitude.  Still  less  is  the  hodge-podge  of 
miscellaneous  information,  much  of  it  worthless,  which 
it  is  now  the  fashion  to  teach  under  the  name  of 
"general  science."  One  can  imagine  a  youth  of  real 
scientific  ability  who  should  fail  to  respond  at  all  to  this 


7j(5  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

imitation  science;  while  on  the  other  hand,  the  prize 
pupil  of  the  class  in  several  of  these  subjects,  as  they 
are  too  often  taught,  may  have  no  real  scientific  ability 
at  all.  In  fact,  ability  in  algebra  and  geometry,  even 
in  Latin  and  Greek,  is  quite  as  sure  a  test  of  the  embryo 
man  of  science  as  are  several  of  the  so-called  "sciences." 
A  zeal  for  "wireless,"  however  burning,  is  no  criterion 
at  all. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  course  in  physics  or  in  chemistr\- 
that  fits  for  the  examinations  of  a  high-grade  college  is 
probably  a  real  test.  No  one  who  cannot  handle  either 
subject  readily,  and  his  mathematics  as  well,  has  the 
scientific  mind,  even  though  his  present  interest  and  his 
future  work  may  lie  in  a  different  field  of  science.  To 
handle  both  subjects  uncommonly  well  is  an  encouraging 
sign  for  either  a  scientific  or  an  engineering  career. 

Beyond  this,  it  is  pretty  clear  that  the  scientific  type 
of  boy  or  girl  is  hardh-  distinguishable  in  youth  from 
the  medical  type  which  we  ha\-e  already  discussed. 
Both  tend  to  be,  on  the  whole,  reser^^ed  and  silent 
rather  than  the  opposite,  thoughtful  rather  than  glib, 
not  as  a  whole  especially  sociable,  and  likely  to  be 
interested  in  machines  and  collections. 

On  the  whole,  probably  the  most  characteristic  quality 
of  the  scientific  man  is  originality.  All  great  investiga- 
tors have  been  men  of  most  uncommon  independence  of 
mind,  and  the  quality  seems  nearly  always  to  have  shown 
young.  Ingenuity,  especially,  is  one  of  the  fonns  that 
originality  takes  in  youth,  and  it  may  also  appear  as 
certain  forms  of  waywardness.  Various  eminent  students 
of  nature  have  given  their  parents  and  teachers  a  good 
deal  of  quite  unnecessary  anxiety. 

One  thing  with  another,  then,  we  have  a  fairly  sharp 
"clinical  picture"  of  the  physician-scientist-engineer  .sort 


Plate  VIII.  Annual  Report  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  1907 

Louis  Agassiz 

"The  elder  Agassiz"  was  equally  eminent  as  a  man  of  science  and 
as  a  teacher,  but  was  quite  without  business  ability.  He  married  the 
sister  of  an  eminent  botanist,  who  was  also  an  excellent  housekeeper. 
Their  son,  Alexander,  "the  younger  Agassiz,"  inherited  scientific 
ability  from  both  parents  and  became  even  more  eminent  than  his 
father,  but  he  missed  completely  his  father's  teaching  ability.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  took  his  mother's  business  capacity,  and  became  also  a 
great  mining  engineer.  Later  generations  have  married  into  business 
families,  and  have  for  the  most  part  lost  their  scientific  eminence. 
The  entire  family,'  however,  still  retains  the  uncommon  muscular 
strength  and  activity  which  characterized  the  elder  Agassiz,  and  which 
appears  even  in  this  portrait. 


ijS  ]  'ocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

of  boy.  But  to  differentiate  the  three,  and  to  say 
which  of  the  branches  of  the  main  trunk  any  youth 
should  chmb,  is  for  the  present  quite  beyond  the  power 
of  the  vocational  guide. 

The  range  of  quality  which  finds  its  place  in  some 
corner  of  the  scientific  field  is  every  year  becoming 
wider.  The  old-time  men  of  science,  in  order  to  suc- 
ceed in  their  chosen  work,  had  either,  like  Darwin  and 
Lavoisier,  to  hoxe  independent  means;  or  like  Priestley 
and  Lubbock,  they  have  had  to  follow  some  other  occu- 
pation for  a  living  and  do  their  scientific  work  as  an 
avocation;  or  else,  like  the  great  majority  of  scientific 
men  up  to  within  a  few  years,  they  have  had  to  resort 
to  teaching. 

Now  it  so  happens  that  the  kind  of  ability  that 
makes  a  good  teacher,  and  the  kind  of  ability  that 
makes  a  man  of  science,  do  not  commonly  go  together. 
In  fact,  just  this  natural  incompatibility  of  the  two  is 
one  of  the  reasons  why  the  introduction  of  natural  science 
into  the  modern  school  has  proved  in  practice  to  be  so 
great  a  disappointment  to  its  advocates.  Huxleys  and 
Agassiz'  are  rare.  Practically,  the  man  or  woman  of  real 
scientific  talents  does  not  ordinarily  teach  really  well. 
One  has  only  to  read  the  educational  journals  to  see  that 
the  more  prominent  teachers  of  natural  science  are  very 
far  from  being  in  any  sense  scientific  men. 

It  has  been  in  the  past,  to  some  extent  it  still  is,  a 
question  for  each  prospective  man  of  science  to  decide, 
whether  he  has  enough  liking  for  teaching  and  enough 
talent  to  make  it  worth  his  while  to  combine  the  two. 
That  time,  fortunately,  has  gone  by.  There  are  plenty 
of  positions  open  to  persons  who  will  not  teach  to  take 
care  of  most  of  those  who  cannot,  though  it  may  take 
hunting  to  find  them. 


The  Scientific  Croup  IJQ 

Nevertheless,  this  problem  confronts  every  youth  who 
is  considering  a  scientific  career:  Shall  he  take  it 
"straight,"  or  shall  he  fit  himself  for  a  teaching  position 
and  carry  the  two  vocations  along  together?  Let  him 
not  deceive  himself  into  thinking  that  he  may  simply  go 
ahead  with  his  scientific  studies,  and  then  if  the  labora- 
tory does  not  take  him,  the  desk  will.  The  two  fields 
take  a  different  sort  of  person.  The  training  for  the  two 
ought  to  be  correspondingly  different. 

The  range  of  ability  which  brings  a  useful  and  happy 
life  in  the  field  of  natural  science  is  much  greater  than 
that  in  any  of  the  professions  which  thus  far  have  been 
discussed.  The  foremost  men  of  science,  persons  like 
Newton  and  Franklin,  ha\'e  been  among  the  ablest  men 
of  their  day.  Franklin  is  commonly  counted  among  the 
two  or  three  greatest  Americans.  Newton  ranks  among 
the  two  or  three  greatest  men  of  the  world. 

On  their  upper  levels,  therefore,  the  men  of  science 
in  any  community  are  the  equals  of  the  lawyers  and 
physicians.  On  the  lower  levels,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
vast  amount  of  useful  routine  work  is  now  being  done 
by  men  whose  native  mental  equipment  ranks  with  the 
unsuccessful  lawyer  or  the  average  preacher.  One  may 
turn  off  analyses  of  gas  or  water  most  acceptably,  and 
yet  fall  far  short  of  the  quality  of  brain  that  makes  him 
equal  to  being  trusted  with  human  lives.  Pure  science, 
like  its  applications  to  engineering  and  agriculture,  offers 
so  wide  a  field  and  on  so  many  levels,  that  no  adequately 
trained  person  need  fail  to  find  a  place  somewhere. 


By  permission  from  Thomas  A.  Edison.      Photo  from  H.  .1.  Brady 

Thomas  A.  Edisox 

Mr.  Edison  may  be  ranked  equally  high  as  an  inventor,  an  engineer, 
a  technologist,  a  chemist,  or  as  a  ''researcher"  in  pure  science.  In 
broad  terms  he  is  a  scientist  with  a  mind  set  for  the  practical  applica- 
tion of  his  science  to  the  problems  of  the  day. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

Engineering  and  Invention 

AS  A  matter  of  logic,  the  line  between  science  on  the 
one  side  and  engineering  on  the  other  is  distinct 
enough.  The  scientific  man  deals  with  the  facts  and  laws 
of  nature;  his  ultimate  product  is  something  that  can  be 
stated  in  words.  But  the  engineer  deals  with  "engines, " 
in  the  original  sense.  His  ultimate  product  is  something 
made  of  steel  or  brass  or  masonry.  ■  The  inventor  differs 
from  the  engineer  only  in  that  his  "gin"  is  more  original, 
more  uniquely  his  own,  less  a  repetition  of  what  other 
men  have  already  made. 

As  a  matter  of  practice,  however,  the  line  is  by  no  means 
so  clear.  Most  of  the  so-called  scientific  schools  of  the 
country  are  schools  of  engineering  or  technology.  Pure 
science,  applied  science,  technology,  engineering,  and 
invention  tend  more  and  more  to  become  mere  regions 
in  a  continuous  series  like  that  which  carries  the  size  of 
objects  from  small,  through  undersized  and  middling,  up 
to  large.  Most  technicists  of  to-day  build  on  a  founda- 
tion of  pure  science.  Some  of  the  best  scientific  work  of 
the  time  has  been  with  an  eye  to  its  technical  or  engineer- 
ing results,  as  witness  the  coal-tar  dyes  and  the  chemical 
study  of  metallic  alloys. 

We  reckon  Lord  Kelvin  as  the  dean  of  nineteenth- 
century  science;  yet  it  was  his  invention  of  a  telegraph 
recorder  that  made  possible  the  submarine  cable.  We 
coiuit  George  Westinghouse  an  engineer;  but  he  took 
out  three  hundred  patents  of  his  own.  The  younger 
Agassiz  deliberately  made  a  great  fortune  as  a  miner 

141 


142  \'ocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

for  the  sake  of  spending  it  in  the  pursuit  of  pure 
science.  Edison  is  commonh-  reckoned  an  inventor,  and 
yet  how  much  of  his  work  has  been  engineering  or  tech- 
nology! There  simply  is  no  line  to  be  drawn  between  the 
vocations  of  this  group  in  any  such  fasliion  as,  let  us  say, 
between  the  ministry  and  the  law,  or  between  the  painter 
and  the  musician. 

Our  "clinical  picture"  is,  therefore,  in  outline  this: 
Given  the  fundamental  scientific  type  of  mind,  the  thing- 
mindedness  coupled  with  high  ability,  the  addition  of 
uncommon  powers  of  obscr\-ation  makes  a  devotee  of  one 
of  the  natural-history  sciences.  The  same  man,  plus 
the  moral  characteristics  that  make  a  clergyman  or 
teacher,  listens  to  a  call  to  medicine.  A  twist  toward 
theorizing  and  abstractions  makes  the  "researcher"  in 
pure  science.  A  constructive  imagination  added  to  the 
scientific  bent  ma}-  produce  an  in^-entor.  The  inventor 
with  business  sagacity  and  sound  judgment  becomes 
the  engineer.  The  engineer  who  is  also  an  artist  is  an 
architect. 

In  other  words,  we  ha\-e  here  a  somewhat  well-marked 
type  of  human  being,  which  on  its  lower  levels  is  the 
mechanic,  and  on  its  higher,  branches  out  into  a  dozen 
different  vocations  which  at  first  sight  have  little  enough 
in  common. 

Oddly  enough,  engineering  and  the  ministry  seem  to 
be  the  only  professions  in  which  there  is  any  sign  of  a 
distinct  physical  type.  All  professional  men,  to  be  sure, 
tend  to  be  of  more  than  average  size  and  vigor  of  body, 
for  the  reason  that  as  a  whole  they  are  taken  from  the 
better  endowed  classes  of  their  communities.  The  clergy, 
in  addition,  since  voice  and  "presence"  count  so  much 
toward  their  success,  are,  as  we  have  seen,  rather  more 
than  average  specimens  even  of  this  favored  class. 


tLngineenng  and  Invention 


H3 


Metropolitan  Park  Commission,  Boston 

A  vacuum  cleaner  sand  dredge.     The  inventor  of  this  dredge  is  engineer 

in  that  he  has  built  an  "engine";  but  he  is  an  inveiitor  because 

there  is  something  new  and  original  about  the  "engine' 


The  engineers  also  are  a  picked  group  physically. 
Moreover,  like  the  clergy  they  include  rather  more  than 
their  share  of  athletes.  In  fact,  one  prominent  engineer 
has  argued  that  a  boy's  talent  for  the  vocation  is  in  no 
small  degree  tested  by  his  success  at  football. 

The  reasons  for  this  seem  to  be  two.  In  the  first 
place,  for  most  branches  of  engineering  the  beginner,  at 
least,  has  to  go  into  all  sorts  of  wild  places  and  to  endure 
a  good  deal  of  hardship  while  he  is  getting  his  start 
in  the  profession.  Some  men,  miners  for  example,  or 
geologists,  may  have  to  do  this  during  all  their  working 
lives.  Hardiness,  love  of  adventure,  a  liking  for  the 
rougher  sports,  are  some  of  the  promising  signs  of  the 
coming  engineer. 

Besides  this,  there  is  the  fact  that  most  engineers  have 
to  handle  men.     Moreover,   their    cmplovces    arc  very 


144  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

largely  a  rougher  sort  than  those  in  most  occupations. 
In  this,  the  big  man,  the  athlete,  has  a  great  advantage 
over  other  types.  For  both  these  reasons  the  under- 
sized, unathletic  boy  may  well  consider  whether  pure 
science  rather  than  engineering  is  not  his  proper  field. 
But,  of  course,  there  are  exceptions.  The  manager  of  a 
city  gas  plant  need  not  be  different  from  any  business  man. 

Because  the  engineer  commonly  has  to  handle  men, 
he  needs  also  the  mysterious  quality  which  we  have 
called  capacity  for  leadership.  Without  this  capacity 
he  can  hardly  go  very  far  in  his  profession.  If,  there- 
fore, one  does  not  show  this  during  school  days,  it  is 
reasonably  clear  that  his  call  is  rather  toward  pure 
science  or  medicine. 

Equally  with  the  devotee  of  pure  science,  the  engineer 
is  characterized  by  originality  of  mind.  He  differs  from 
the  scientific  man  in  the  greater  development  of  his 
powers  of  judgment. 

In  other  words,  the  engineer  is,  in  mental  type,  some- 
what midway  between  the  physician  and  the  man  of 
science  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  business  man  on  the 
other.  Briefly,  the  engineer  is  the  all-round  person  who 
might  have  done  well  either  at  business  or  at  research; 
while  the  scientific  man  has  the  more  specialized  talent 
and  might  not  succeed  at  all  in  a  business  venture.  A 
liking  for  business  is,  then,  one  of  the  tests  of  a  budding 
engineer. 

In  these  qualities  of  the  engineer,  his  business  ability  and 
his  power  of  leadership,  lies  one  of  the  attractions  of  the 
profession.  The  engineer  is  an  all-round  man  by  nature. 
His  training  tends  still  further  to  develop  this  native 
"wholesomeness."  The  result  is  that  a  well-equipped 
engineer  can  turn  his  hand  to  more  different  occupations 
than,  one  may  fairly  say,  any  other  professional  man. 


Engineering  and  Invention 


145 


Metropolitan  Park  Commission,  Boston 

The  Harvard  University  Stadium.     The  engineer  who  is  also  an 

artist  builds  ''engines,"  or  bridges,  or  houses,  or  concrete 

bleachers,  but  he  does  so  with  an  eye  for  beauty 

Especially  noteworthy  is  the  close  relation  between 
engineering,  invention,  and  business.  The  result  is  that 
for  certain  sorts  of  business,  and  these  among  the  most 
important,  an  engineering  training  is  among  the  best  of 
preparations.  Conversely,  the  engineer  who  does  not 
quite  make  a  success  of  his  profession  can  easily  try 
again  as  a  business  man. 

For  all  these  reasons,  a  young  man  may  venture  on 
the  training  for  an  engineer  with  less  proof  of  his  special 
talent  than  in  the  case,  probably,  of  any  other  of  the 
professional  careers.  Brains,  of  course,  he  must  prove 
himself  to  possess.  But  beyond  this,  he  may  safely  em- 
bark on  the  course  that  leads  to  engineering  with  less 
proof  of  any  special  gifts  than  are  demanded  for  most 
other  vocations.  Preeminently,  given  a  youth  of  at  all 
the  right  sort,  engineering  is  likely  to  be  a  good  risk. 

10 


146  Vocatio]ial  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

Taken  in  this  wide  sense,  the  engineering  group  offers 
an  inviting  field  for  a  great  variety  of  special  aptitude. 
Anciently,  it  split  onh'  into  military  engineering  and 
civil.  The  men  of  two  or  three  generations  ago,  like 
Stephenson  or  Smeaton,  took  it  all  in  the  day's  work  to 
build  a  lighthouse,  design  a  steam  engine,  lay  out  a 
carriage  road,  figure  a  bridge,  and  wind  up  with  a  plan 
for  harbor  improvement.  Most  of  them,  on  a  pinch, 
could  ha\-e  built  forts  or  designed  men-of-war. 

To-da>',  a  good  engineering  school  runs  four-year 
courses  in  a  dozen  different  branches  that  are  almost  as 
distinct  as  so  many  different  professions.  Almost  as 
earh'  in  life  as  a  }'Outh  needs  to  decide  whether  he  will 
become  an  engineer  at  all,  he  must  begin  to  make  up 
his  mind  among  the  old  "civil"  group,  machines,  elec- 
tricity, steam,  water-power,  chemistry,  mines,  sanita- 
tion, illumination,  factories. 

In  actual  work,  the  specializing  goes  much  farther. 
Some  men  stick  to  marine  engines,  some  to  pumping 
engines,  some  to  locomoti^xs.  Some  construction  engi- 
neers do  nothing  l:)ut  railways;  some  confine  themselves 
to  highways;  some  do  nothing  but  dams;  some  devote 
themselves  to  bridges.  There  arc  mill  engineers,  and 
sewage  experts,  and  men  who  are  authority  on  water 
supply.  A  little  difference  of  initial  interest  will  land  a 
boy,  a  year  out  of  his  technical  school,  in  the  office  of 
a  city  gas  plant,  or  hang  him  on  a  rope  over  a  cliff'  in  the 
high  Andes. 

Moreover,  the  field  for  well-equipped  engineers  is 
expanding  more  rapidly  than  any  other  branch  of  the 
professions.  The  American  Societ>'  of  Agricultural  Engi- 
neers is  just  ten  years  old.  The  American  Genetic 
Association,  whose  members  are  essentially  biological 
engineers,    is    not     yet     fi\-e    years     old.       The    whole 


148  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

electrical  group  has  come  into  existence  within  the 
memory  of  persons  hardly  middle  aged.  The  very  men 
who  to-day  are  the  leading  experts  on  water  supply  and 
the  disposal  of  sewage,  were  laboratory  assistants  in  the 
first  systematic,  large-scale  experiments  in  eliminating 
typhoid.  Gas  engines,  automobiles,  aeroplanes  have 
made  new  branches  of  the  profession  that  are  yoimger 
than  most  persons  who  read  this  book.  Who  can  tell 
what  may  happen  next  year? 

In  fact,  there  is,  just  at  this  very  time,  a  whole  new 
vocation  of  the  scientific  group,  springing  up  under  our 
very  eyes.  It  has  as  yet  no  settled  name.  It  lies  mid- 
way between  medicine  and  sanitary  engineering,  and  yet 
is  not  either  one.  Its  practitioners  are  really  superin- 
tendents of  public  health,  persons  who  are  responsible 
for  the  health  of  a  community  much  as  a  general  prac- 
titioner is  responsible  for  that  of  a  single  family.  They 
are  not  physicians,  because  they  do  not  treat  disease. 
They  are  not  engineers,  because  they  do  not  build 
structures.  Actually,  most  of  them,  thus  far,  have  been 
trained  as  physicians.  But  this  is  clearly  not  the  best 
training.  A  few  schools  only  are  now  giving  special 
courses  that  look  forward  to  the  new  vocation.  But  the 
development  of  the  profession  is  still  to  come.  This  is 
but  a  sample  of  the  expansions  which  lie  before  the 
scientific  occupations. 

In  addition  to  this,  the  scale  on  which  engineering 
works,  even  of  the  old  sorts,  are  now  being  carried  forward 
is  something  of  which  men  did  not  dream  a  generation 
ago.  The  Egyptians  irrigated  their  fields  before  the 
beginnings  of  history.  But  they  waited  till  our  own  day 
to  build  the  Assuan  dam;  and  even  now  the  Egyptian 
government  is  planning  to  spend  another  fifty  millions 
or   so   on   further   like   projects,     Ancient   travelers   to 


Engineering  and  Invention  140 

Cathay  marveled  at  the  canals  of  that  far  country. 
China  is  now  planning  to  put  twenty  million  dollars  into 
another. 

One  need  not  dwell  on  the  Panama  Canal  and  our  own 
government  reclamation  projects.  Private  capital  put 
a  score  .  of  millions  into  the  Keokuk  dam  across  the 
Mississippi.  A  railway  borrows  ten  millions  at  a  time 
from  a  thousand  different  persons.  It  has  been  calculated 
that  the  country's  electrical  industries  alone,  during  the 
next  five  years,  will  absorb  new  capital  at  the  rate  of 
eight  million  dollars  a  week. 

By  far  the  greater  part  of  these  enormous  sums  will  be 
spent  under  the  direction  of  engineers.  And  since  this 
is  all  intended  to  be  productive  capital,  yielding  its  profit 
to  its  owners  and  its  service  to  mankind,  it  is  clear  that 
on  the  efficiency  of  the  general  body  of  engineers,  more 
than  on  any  other  single  group  of  men,  hangs  the  material 
prosperity  of  the  nation.  Sir  William  Ramsay  has  even 
gone  so  far  as  to  opine  that  during  the  next  generation 
chemical  engineers  alone  are  going  to  determine  the 
relative  standing  of  the  great  peoples  of  the  world. 

Naturally,  the  public  does  not  muzzle  the  ox  that 
treads  out  the  highly  valuable  com.  The  Panama 
engineers  saved  twenty  cents  a  cubic  yard  on  the  estimated 
cost  of  taking  out  a  hundred  million  yards.  The  man 
who  planned  and  built  the  Lucin  Cut-ofiE,  which  carries 
the  Union  Pacific  Railway  across  Great  Salt  Lake,  saved 
his  employers  sixty  thousand  dollars  on  the  first  year's 
traffic.  Persons  who  can  do  this  sort  of  thing  are  scarce, 
and  cheap  at  any  price, — and  they  get  it.  As  a  result, 
the  great  engineers  rival  the  great  lawyers  in  the  size 
of  their  inoney  prizes. 

For  men  in  private  practice,  professional  earnings  are 
so  mixed  in  with  business  profits  that  nobody  can  really 


ijo  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 


Metropolitan  Park  Commission,  Boaton 

The  park  system  of  a  modern  city  includes  lake  and  seaside  resorts,  fields, 

forests,  roads,  bridges,  buildings,  transportation  systems,  athletic 

fields,  and  even  theaters.     Its  planning  and  maintenance 

require  a  corps  of  specialized  engineers 

tell  where  either  leaves  off.  Westinghouse,  who  started 
poor,  must  at  times  have  paid  himself  nearly  a  million 
dollars  a  year.  McConnick  must  have  done  nearly  as 
well  with  his  farm  machiner^^  In  fact,  when  one  comes 
to  think  of  it,  most  of  the  great  American  fortunes  of 
late  years  have  had  about  them  a  considerable  flavor  of 
engineering. 

As  to  professional  fees  pure  and  simple,  it  is  a  familiar 
story  that  the  man  who  really  broke  the  back  of  the 
Panama  project,  resigned  a  regal  income  from  the  govern- 
ment because  he  could  not  afford  to  sacrifice  the  still 
larger  earnings  of  his  private  practice.  The  Chief 
Engineer  of  Public  Works  in  New  York,  with  a  salary  of 
twenty  thousand  dollars  a  year,  is  said  to  be  the  highest 
paid  public  official  in  the  state.  In  general,  if  the  lawyers 
beat  the  engineers  in  the  summation  of  their  fees  for 
piece  work,  the  engineers  probably  outdo  all  the  other 


Engineering  and  Invention 


151 


professional  men  in  the  day's  wages  they  exact  as  one 
employer  bids  against  another. 

Unforttmately,  "the  cream  rises  thin  at  the  to]),"  so 
that  the  great  engineers  of  the  world  arc  a  small  group 
of  extraordinary  men,  who  have  something  of  a  monopoly 
of  the  large-scale  undertakings.  But  the  unique  thing 
about  engineering  is  the  combination  within  its  ranks  of 
great  prizes  for  great  men  and  a  comfortable  living  for 
lesser  men.  A  profession  whose  larger  rewards  rival 
those  of  business  and  the  law  shades  off  at  the  bottom 
into  useful  vocations  at  ordinary  day's  wages. 

In  other  words,  the  same  enormous  range  of  ability 
which  we  have  already  seen  to  be  characteristic  of  pure 
science  appears  also  in  the  closely  related  field  of  applied 
science.  In  each,  there  are  great  men  and  small,  all 
useful,  and  all  doing  interesting  work.  The  obvious 
difference  is  that  while  the  great  engineer  is  paid  greatly 


Metropolitan  Park  Commission,  Boston 


Road  making.      The  cub  engineer  often  literally  ''takes  to  the  road ' 


iy2  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

in  money,  the  great  discoverer  commonly  has  to  take 
his  reward  in  fame. 

Most  of  the  great  corporations  which,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  maintain  scientific  staffs,  have  also  staffs 
of  inventors  and  engineers,  to  whom  they  pay  from  ten 
or  twelve  thousand  dollars  a  year  down  to  one  or  two 
thousand.  The  railways  that  pay  their  chief  engineers 
in  five  figures  put  their  cub  engineers  to  running  levels 
at  a  wage  hardly  greater  than  that  on  which  a  country 
clerg>Tnan  is  expected  to  bring  up  a  family.  All  over 
this  country  are  young  men  and  old,  in  charge  of  gas 
plants  and  electric-lighting  stations,  engineers  of  highways 
and  water  supply  in  small  towns,  assistants  of  all  sorts 
in  large  ones. 

Some  of  these  are  capable  persons  who  will  go  far; 
some  have  already  found  their  levels ;  most  of  them  are  on 
small  salaries.  But  one  and  all,  they  are  experts,  trained 
for  their  special  work  and  not  lightly  to  be  spared  from 
it ;  and  each  knows  himself  to  be  important  for  the  comfort 
or  welfare  of  some  community. 

"There  are  rhen,"  says  Arnold  Beim.ett,  "who  are 
capable  of  loving  a  machine  more  deeply  than  they  can 
love  a  woman";  and  there  are  men  who  like  to  feel  that 
because  of  their  labor  the  earth  for  centuries  to  come  will 
be  kinder  to  its  children,  or  will  cast  a  different  shadow 
on  the  moon.  Both  these  sorts  go  into  engineering;  and 
"they  are  among  the  happiest  men  on  earth."  What 
other  profession  offers  such  varied  rewards  to  so  many 
different  kinds  and  grades  of  men' 


CHAPTER  XV 

Agriculture 

FARMING,  so  far  as  it  is  a  profession,  belongs 
obviously  with  the  engineering  group.  The  farmer's 
engine  is  his  fami  —  a  vastly  complicated  piece  of  machin- 
ery in  which  cows  and  hens,  farm  tools,  soils,  weather, 
bacteria,  and  fertilizers  work  together  like  levers  and  cog 
wheels  to  turn  out  the  final  product  for  which  the  farm 
exists. 

More  particularly,  agriculture  is  one  of  the  chemical 
industries.  Its  problem  is  to  convert  the  simple  materials 
of  earth  and  air  into  fibers  or  animals  or  human  food 
in  essentially  the  same  way  that,  for  example,  another 
chemical  industry  converts  coal  tar  into  the  aniline  dyes, 
and  still  a  third  alters  ordinary  cotton  into  the  high  explo- 
sive. The  farmer,  in  other  words,  labors  to  alter  the 
properties  of  bodies  rather  than,  like  the  civil  or  mechani- 
cal engineer,  to  change  their  places  in  space. 

Moreover,  the  successful  modern  fanner  tends  more  and 
more  to  become  of  the  same  mental  type  as  other  members 
of  the  engineering  group.  He  has  need  of  the  same  com- 
bination— by  no  means  frequent — of  practical  sense,  sci- 
entific insight,  and  business  sagacity.  Finally,  nowadays, 
he  is  getting  very  much  the  same  sort  of  education. 

One  might,  then,  conveniently  lump  in  agriculture  with 
the  rest  of  the  engineering  group.  What  has  already  been 
said  of  the  others  applies  equally  well  to  that  one  whose 
special  "gin"  is  the  land.  Whatever  more  might  be 
said  of  engineering  in  general  would  be  equally  true  of 
modem  scientific  farming. 

153 


154  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 


Jrow  ti  Hro8. 


Cadwallader  Orchard;  on  tlie  Rio  Grande  project,   New  Mexico. 

Waste  spaces  are  useless  cogs  in  the  agricultural  engine  and 

the  modern  scientific  farmer  eliminates  them 

Nevertheless,  there  are  certain  aspects  of  agriculture 
in  which  it  stands  somewhat  apart  from  the  remainder 
of  the  engineering  group.  Unlike  the  others,  which  are 
all  new  vocations,  agriculture  is  the  oldest  industry  of 
settled  human  society,  the  earliest  applied  science.  It 
is,  in  a  very  real  sense,  the  great  original  trunk  from  which 
all  the  specialized  modem  forms  of  engineering  have 
budded  off.  Just  as  in  primitive  society  the  "medicine 
man"  is  clergyman,  teacher,  lawyer,  and  physician,  all 
in  one,  so  also  the  primitive  fanner  is  the  road- 
maker,  the  bridge  builder,  the  digger  of  canals,  the 
constructor  of  waterworks,  the  inventor  of  tools;  in 
short,  the  engineer.  In  much  the  same  fashion  that  the 
traditionally  "learned"  professions  are  liistorically  but 
specializations  of  ancient  priestcraft,  the  new  "practical" 
professions  are  specializations  of  primitive  agriculture. 


Agriculture  I55 

Now  wc  have  already  noted  that  the  clergyman,  as  the 
original  professional  man  in  human  society,  still  retains 
something  of  the  all-round  character  of  his  prototype. 
He  is  still  something  of  teacher,  physician,  lawyer,  and 
business  man,  the  least  differentiated  worker  of  his  group. 
For  much  the  same  reason,  the  fanner  also  remains  the 
most  all-round  man  among  engineers.     He  is  more  differ- 
ent kinds  of  person  than  even  the  parson.     He  is  the  only 
member  of  the  community  who  is  at  the  same  time  laborer 
and    capitalist,    trader    and    manufacturer,    artisan    and 
overseer,  student  and  man  of  affairs.     He  is  the  only  sort 
of  person  who  works  at  the  same   time   head,   hands, 
capital,   business  experience,   and  professional   training. 
Furthermore,  the  well-equipped  modem  farmer  has  to 
know  something  of  more  different  branches  of  science 
than  does  any  other  professional  or  business  man.     It  is 
no  mere  jest  that  he  is  nowadays  assumed  to  be  familiar 
with  the   botanical  name  of   what   he  raises,   and  the 
entomological  name  of  the  bug  that  eats  the  crop,  and  the 
pharmaceutical  name  of  the  chemical  that  kills  the  bug. 
Botany,  zoology,  geology,  three  or  four  members  of  the 
chemical   group,    as   many   subdivisions   of   animal   and 
plant  physiology  —  what  modem  science  is  there  that  the 
farmer  docs  not  touch  on  the  practical  side?     In  addition, 
he  is  a  student  of  markets  and  a  business  man. 

Agriculture  is,  therefore,  the  special  vocation  of  the 
all-round  man.  We  have  already  noted  that  there  are 
two  types  of  attention.  Some  thoroughly  efficient  persons 
can  think  hard  on  only  one  subject  at  a  time;  others, 
equally  efficient,  are  able  to  hold  several  in  mind  at  once. 
We  have  also  noted  that  certain  professions,  for  example 
teaching,  are  possible  only  for  minds  of  the  second  type. 
In  the  same  way,  there  are  persons  whose  work-interest 
can  be  narrowed  down  to  one  channel.     Thev  are  content 


1^6  Vocational  Guidance  Jor  the  Professions 

to  go  on,  half  a  lifetime  through,  manufacturing  boot 
heels,  operating  for  appendicitis,  writing  detective  stories. 
Many  an  eminent  man  has  found  his  highest  joy  in 
knowing  all  there  is  to  be  known  about  one  small  field  of 
human  interest.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  other  men 
who  do  their  best  work  by  the  shotgun  method.  They 
have  a  diffused  interest.  They  enjoy  making  many 
different  sorts  of  know-ledge  pull  together. 

The  typical  fanner  is  preeminently  of  the  latter  type. 
In  common  with  all  journalists  and  some  lawyers,  he 
has  the  sort  of  mind  that  can  switch  from  the  market 
quotations  on  apples  to  the  latest  theory  of  soil  fertility; 
from  the  pasturage  of  his  cows  to  the  newest  invention 
in  labor-saving  machinery. 

Finally,  in  common  with  teacher  and  pastor,  the 
successful  fanner  must  have  certain  non-intellectual 
qualities  for  which  other  professional  men  more  com- 
monly have  no  need.  As  both  pastor  and  teacher 
must  instinctively  love  people  and  be  interested  in  them, 
so  must  the  farmer  instinctively  love  nature.  Those 
there  are  to  whom  the  winter  wind  is  merely  cold,  the 
summer  sun  mereh"  hot,  and  the  fresh-turned  soil  just 
dirt.  They  are  simply  born  that  way,  and  they  have 
no  business  on  a  farm.  But  for  the  other  sort,  for  those 
more  happily  endowed  individuals  who  really  love  the 
out-of-doors,  there  are  again  "those  inward  and  incom- 
municable joys"  which  teachers,  ministers,  artists, 
nurses,  and  farmers  seem  to  attain,  more  than  all  other 
earners  of  pay. 

Finally,  the  contented  and  successful  farmer  will  not 
be  especially  gregarious.  There  are  persons  in  whom  the 
social  instincts  are  so  strong  that  they  are  never  happy  out 
of  a  crowd,  and  to  whom  a  moment's  soHtude  is  an  utter 
horror.    They,  again,  are  bom  that  way;  so,  too,  are  cattle 


Agriculture 


157 


Brown  Bros. 


A  boy  who  loves  outdoor  life.     The  boy  whose  call  is  to  agriculture 

has  an  instinctive  love  for  all  the  out-of-doors  and  needs  no 

companionship  but  that  of  nature  to  make  him  happy 

and  sheep  and  English  sparrows.  Other  men  are  Hke 
cats  and  foxes,  who  walk  by  themselves.  Of  necessity, 
no  matter  how  much  the  future  shall  multiply  telephones 
and  motor  cars,  the  farmer  and  his  family  will  have  to 
be  a  good  deal  alone.  Gregariousness,  special  socia- 
biUty,  dependence  on  other  persons,  essential  slavishness 
of  mind,  belong  on  the  pavements,  not  in  the  open  fields. 
Our  "clinical  picture"  of  the  youth  whose  call  is  to 
agriculture  is,  therefore,  this:  He  will  be  very  much  an 
all-round  person,  of  practical,  scientific  bent,  of  a  wide 
range  of  interests,  and  of  distinct  business  capacity.  He 
is,  intellectually,  the  sort  of  person  who  would  do  reason- 
ably well  if  he  followed  a  pure  science,  a  speciaHzed 
branch  of  engineering,  or  plain  business.  In  addition,  he 
will  instinctively  love  animals  and  plants  and  all  outdoors; 
while  he  will  not  love  inordinately  other  human  beings  or 


ij8  Vocational  Guidance  J  or  the  Professions 

be  especially  dependent  on   companionship.     Independ- 
ence and  versatility,  in  short,  are  his  special  qualities. 

There  is,  however,  yet  another  unique  advantage  which 
fanning  offers  beyond  all  other  \^ocations  on  the  same 
mental  level,  namely,  the  conditions  of  its  training.  Other 
professional  men,  for  the  most  part,  have  to  take  their 
fomial  education  in  a  lump,  at  the  professional  school. 
For  the  rest  of  their  lives  they  have  to  study  by  themselves. 
But  the  farmer  is  the  one  of  the  few  laborers  who  can  plan 
in  advance  for  definite  periods  of  light  work.  No  matter 
what  his  crops  ma}'  be,  there  is  always  some  time  in  the 
year  when  they  do  not  need  all  his  attention.  Where 
other  men  have  vacations,  the  fanner  has  periodic  leisure. 

Training  for  agriculture  in  the  United  States  is  built 
around  this  fact.  One  can  always  do  the  conventional 
thing,  and  take  his  fonnal  education  in  a  lump.  But  on 
the  other  hand,  any  ambitiotis  young  man,  employed  at 
farni  work  below  the  professional  level,  may  take  advan- 
tage of  innumerable  excellent  short-temi  courses,  and  go 
as  far  as  he  will.  No  other  worker,  except  possibly  the 
teacher,  has  any  such  educational  opporttmity. 

Against  all  these  varied  advantages  of  successful  agri- 
culture must  be  offset  the  fact  that  farming  pursued  alone 
\'irtually  never  makes  any  man  rich.  Few  workers, 
probably,  are  more  generally  certain  of  reasonable 
comfort,  none  perhaps  are  more  generally  happy  in  their 
work;  but,  like  teaching  and  the  ministry,  the  rewards 
of  agriculture  come  in  other  fomis  than  wealth. 

One  special  satisfaction  the  fanner  has  universally, 
which  only  in  rare  cases  comes  to  any  other  breadwinner 
—  he  shares  his  labors  with  the  members  of  his  family. 
There  is  no  other  vocation,  not  even  the  ministry,  where 
husband  and  wife  are  so  truly  yoke-fellows,  or  where  the 
family  as  a  whole  works  so  unitedly  toward  the  common 


Agriculture 


159 


end.  Of  all  the  permanent  satisfactions  of  human 
existence  few  contribute  more  to  a  happy  life  than  this. 

All  that  has  been  said,  it  must  be  understood,  applies 
fully  only  to  agriculture  followed  on  or  near  the  profes- 
sional level.  That  is  to  say,  it  presupposes  a  natural 
aptitude  for  the  work,  adequate  capital  to  carry  it  on, 
aixl  sufficient  training.  Precisely  this,  the  oldest  of 
settled  vocations  tends  more  and  more  to  become. 

And  yet,  when  all  is  said,  one  cannot  help  feeling  that 
in  the  development  of  agriculture  on  its  scientific  side 
we  have  thus  far  no  more  than  scratched  the  surface. 
To  be  sure,  no  other  branch  of  applied  science  is  so 
richly  endowed  as  is  agriculture,  as  no  other  vocation 
except  war  has  had  from  beginning  of  our  government 
a  cabinet  secretary  of  its  own.      For  no  other  industry 


Courtosy  of  Georgia  Normal  and  Industrial  College 

In  farming  husband  and  wife  icork  together.      While  the  farmer 

ploughs  the  field  or  sozvs  the  grain,  the  farmer's  wife  is 

making  butter,  raising  a  brood  of  hens,  or  fattening 

spring  chickens  for  the  table  or  the  market 


i6o        -  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

is  there  anything  Hke  the  United  vStates  Department  of 
Agriculture,  with  its  more  than  a  half  century  of  efficient 
work,  the  old  land  grants  which  give  a  school  for  agri- 
cultural training  to  every  state  in  the  Union,  or  the  later 
legislation  which  has  added  an  experiment  station  to 
each,  while  virtually  every  community  in  the  land  has 


Courtesy  ol  Georgia  Normal  and  Industrial  College 

Young  gardeners.     "The  family  works  tmitedly  tozvard 
the  common  end" 


Agriculture  i6i 

at  its  service,  and  that  without  charge,  the  best  obtain- 
able expert  knowledge  upon  every  local  problem. 

All  this  bulks  large.  There  is  vastly  more  done  for 
the  farmer  than  for  any  other  worker.  But  on  the 
other  hand,  the  farmers  of  the  country  greatly  out- 
number any  other  working  group.  They  comprise  a 
third  of  all  American  men.  Save  only  the  still  more 
ancient  profession  of  making  homes,  more  persons  follow 
some  branch  of  husbandry  than  make  a  living  in  any 
other  way.  The  effort,  therefore,  enormous  as  it  is  as  a 
whole,  is  still  far  too  small  in  detail. 

To  this  fact  the  public  appears  at  last  to  be  waking 
up.  Farming  is,  after  all,  the  most  fundamental  of  all 
industries.  Food  is  the  one  thing  that  mankind  cannot 
go  without.  If  we  get  too  little  out  of  the  earth,  all 
our  other  endeavors  are  crippled;  no  efficiency  in  other 
lines,  no  philanthropic  zeal,  can  avoid  widespread  misery. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  has  always  been,  from  time 
immemorial,  a  marked  tendency  for  the  farmer  to  be- 
come a  peasant.  The  best  brains  migrate  to  the  city 
and  leave  behind  a  "brother  to  the  ox,"  hard-labored, 
uneducated,  narrow  of  outlook. 

Here  then  is  the  danger:  unless  the  farming  districts 
of  the  land  succeed  in  retaining  their  fair  share  of  the 
native  ability,  of  the  training,  of  the  culture,  of  the 
opportunity  which  America  offers,  then  the  food  supply 
may  fail  and  our  civilization  weaken  at  its  foundation. 

To  this  social  and  economic  question  private  enter- 
prise, state  effort,  and  the  policy  of  the  national  govern- 
ment are  all,  at  the  present  time,  being  directed.  The 
result  is  such  a  change  in  the  conditions  of  rural  life  as 
has  never  occurred  before  in  all  the  long  history  of  civil- 
ization. Motors  for  pleasure  and  for  work,  better  roads, 
consolidated  schools,   the   telephone,   convenient   mails, 

11 


1 62  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

the  growing  control  of  science  over  accidents  of  the 
industry,  the  rising  price  of  foodstuffs  —  one  need  not  go 
on  with  the  hst.  Farming  to-day  is  a  very  different 
matter  from  what  it  was  a  generation  ago. 

It  will  be  still  more  different  in  the  days  to  come. 
Civilization  has  waked  up  to  the  fact  that,  if  it  is  to 
maintain  itself  and  continue  its  advance,  agriculture 
must  be  made  attractive  to  high-grade  men.  To  such 
men,  therefore,  and  to  such  women,  it  offers  year  by 
year  a  more  agreeable  prospect.  Fortunate  it  is  that 
for  the  right  sort  of  man  married  to  the  right  sort  of 
wife,  since  farming  is  always  a  married  man's  job,  the 
oldest  of  the  settled  vocations  offers,  even  now,  one  of 
the  brightest  prospects  for  happy  and  useful  days.  Ten 
and  twenty  years  from  now,  always  for  the  right  sort 
of  person,  it  is  doubtful  if  any  human  vocation  will 
surpass  it. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

LITERATURE    AND   JOURNALISM 

WITH  the  architect,  who  is  at  the  same  time  engineer 
and  artist,  we  pass  to  the  third  of  the  main  types 
of  professional  persons.  As  the  first  group  deals  primarily 
with  rational  human  beings,  and  the  second  with  irrational 
things,  so  the  third  deals  with  rational  beings  on  their 
irrational  side.  That  is  to  say,  it  deals  with  fundamental 
aesthetic  likings  of  the  human  soul  which  lie  far  below  the 
level  of  reason.  Color  and  sound,  motion  and  line, 
the  jingle  of  words  give  us  a  quite  irrational  joy.  The 
]5crsons  who  have  learned  to  minister  to  this  side  of 
our  human  nature  are  the  painters  and  draftsmen,  the 
dancers  and  actors,  the  musicians  and  writers;  in  other 
words,   the  artists. 

The  artist,  in  this  wide  sense,  appeals  not  to  the  individ- 
ual man  or  woman  but  to  "the  public."  The  phy.sician 
cures  a  particular  patient  of  a  particular  disease.  The 
lawyer  keeps  a  particular  client  out  of  a  particular  jail. 
But  the  artist  deals  with  that  which  is  common  to  all 
mankind,  and  meets  a  demand  which,  if  not  altogether 
unconscious,  is  at  least  largely  inarticulate. 

In  mental  quality,  therefore,  the  artist  stands  at  the 
opposite  pole  from,  let  us  say,  the  lawyer.  The  one  is 
given  a  definite  problem  to  solve,  and  his  intellect  thinks 
it  through— a  logical  engine.  The  other  feels  in  his  soul, 
beyond  all  reason,  that  this  musical  chord  or  this  splash 
of  color  or  this  turn  of  words  is  right.  The  one  succeeds 
by  thinking  more  clearly  than  other  men;  the  other, 
by  feeling  more   truly. 

163 


The  Ilalliday  Historic  Photograph  Co. 

Samuel  Langhorne  Clemens  —  "Mark  Twain" 

Mark  Twain  ivas  a  most  forceful  and  efficient  personality  quite 
aside  from  his  literary  gifts.  As  a  Mississippi  pilot  and  a  California 
miner,  he  proved  more  than  able  to  hold  his  own  in  any  kind  of  rough 
work.  He  was  essentially  a  man  of  affairs  with  the  turn  for  words 
added  on. 


Literature  and  Journalism  i6^ 

The  artist,  in  other  words,  has  "genius."  He  may 
have  it  in  ultra-microscopic  amount;  but  there  neverthe- 
less it  is,  "that  combination  of  imagination,  insight, 
originality,  power  of  expression,  combativeness,  vanity, 
and  thin  skin  which  is  commonly  miscalled  'the  artistic 
temperament.'" 

Once  given  this  artistic  temperament,  it  seems  to  be 
rather  a  secondary  matter  in  which  direction  it  shall  turn. 
One  has  only  to  look  about  him  to  see  to  how  great  an 
extent,  at  all  levels  of  artistic  gifts,  skill  at  one  form  is 
accompanied  by  some  j^roficiency  at  several  others. 
Musicians,  as  a  whole,  have  a  better  eye  for  color  than 
non-musicians.  The  man  "who  can  draw  can  usually 
paint.  Morris,  Rossetti,  Du  Maurier,  Thompson-Seton, 
are  obvious  instances  of  men  who  have  gone  about  equally 
far  in  two  or  niore  unrelated  arts.  Most  schools  can 
furnish  others  on  a  smaller  scale.  Most  families  which 
contain  an  amateur  of  one  art  have  members  devoted  to 
other  arts  as  well. 

This  general  impulse  toward  artistic  expression  runs 
out  by  way  of  four  main  channels.  Ear-minded  persons, 
who  naturally  think  in  sounds,  go  into  music.  Eye- 
minded  people  are  attracted  by  all  that  has  to  do  with 
line  and  color.  The  muscle-minded  find  their  vocation 
as  actors  and  dancers,  or  in  some  form  of  art  that  involves 
handicraft.  Besides,  there  is  what  is  almost  a  word- 
sense,  which  may  accompany  any  one  of  the  three  rec- 
ognized mental  types.  Certain  persons,  apparently  by 
nature,  tend  to  do  their  thinking  in  words. 

To  those  who  have  this  word-sense,  three  vocations  are 
open :  They  may  become  literary  workers ;  or  they  may 
become  writers;  or  finally,  they  may  become  journalists. 

Much  of  journalism  is  hardly  a  profession.  The 
ordinary  reporter  is  literally  a   "journalist,"  that  is,  a 


i66 


1  'ocational  Guidance  Jar  the  Projessions 


"day  laborer."  He  is  hired  for  wages,  ordered  about  by 
his  emplo}'er,  turned  off  when  his  youth  is  past,  in  all 
respects  like  any  hired  hand.  His  work  is  impersonal; 
nobody  cares  whether  he  or  another  does  it.  With  the 
lapse  of  years  he  builds  up  no  clientele  and  accumulates 
no  body  of  expert  judgments.  Still  less  professional  is 
the  "space  writer,"  who  grinds  out  the  sorry  stuff  that 
fills  the  Sunday  edition  and  encroaches  on  the  weekday 
columns.  These  kinds  of  work  may  pay  up  to  two  or 
three  thousand  dollars  a  year;  but  they  are  hardly  profes- 
sional and  they  certainly  arc  not  art. 

About  the  only  professional  "journalists"  are  the 
editors,  the  "  special  writers"  for  the  magazines,  and  the 
publishers'  hacks  who  write  the  "timely"  books.  Wages 
for  this  group  are,  in  general,  about  on  the  clerical  level, 
with  no  considerable  prizes  and  few  satisfactions  of  any 


fll^fa  i 

Hi 

f 

1 

w^r 

tt«1fe:^/, 

Ink    ^^i^^j^ 

^^31 

^i 

^^^ 

1 

Brown  Bros. 


Newspaper  reporters  at  work.     One  of  the  chief  requisites  of  the 

reporter's  work  is  that  it  shall  be  impersonal,  and  thai 

condiiion  places  it  on  a  non-professional  level 


Literature  and  Journalism  16 j 

sort  that  outlast  the  zest  of  youth.  Nevertheless,  in  the 
smaller  cities  and  in  towns,  newspaper  men  are  among  the 
first  citizens;  while  perhaps  a  half  dozen  times  in  a  genera- 
tion a  metropolitan  editor  like  Dana  or  Greeley  or  Godkin 
emerges  from  anonjTnity  and  becomes  a  power  in  the  land. 

For  most  of  us,  however,  "writing"  means  writing 
fiction.  Now  the  rewards  of  fiction  writing  may  be  very 
high.  In  the  first  place  there  is  fame,  fame  in  larger 
measure  than  comes  to  any  other  worker  with  the  same 
equipment.  As  for  cold  cash,  a  "best  seller"  is  good 
for  twenty-thousand-dollar  serial  rights  in  a  magazine, 
followed  by  one  or  two  hundred  thousand  copies  at  a 
royalty  of  thirty  cents  each,  and  finished  off  with  a  cheap 
edition  of  another  hundred  thousand  or  so  at  five  cents.  A 
successful  play  may  bring  its  author  a  thousand  dollars 
a  week  during  its  run.  The  best  short  stories  bring  five 
and  even  ten  cents  a  word,  though  the  actual  writing 
may  take  no  more  than  a  single  day. 

Meantime,  there  are  no  overhead  charges,  and  no 
office  staff  to  eat  up  half,  two  thirds,  three  quarters  of  the 
profits.     All  that  comes  in  is  gain. 

Unfortunately,  however,  it  takes  the  same  year  or  two 
to  write  the  best  novel  of  the  season,  and  the  worst; 
and  they  both  alike  sell  for  the  same  dollar  thirty-five 
net.  The  result  is  that  the  public  never  buys  what  it 
does  not  want  because  it  is  cheap.  What  it  likes,  it  runs 
up  to  the  half  million;  what  it  does  not  care  for,  it  dis- 
misses from  its  mind  at  two  thousand. 

Most  of  each  year's  new  novels,  therefore,  sell  two  and 
three  thousand  copies,  or  less.  The  author,  not  being 
a  celebrity,  gets  ten  cents  on  each.  If,  therefore,  the 
author  is  a  wise  child  of  this  world,  he  works  daytimes 
at  reporting  or  editing,  writing  book  reviews,  or  anything 
else  that  anybody  will  pay  him  for  doing,  and  writes  his 


Courtesy  of  "The  Nation" 

Edwin  Lawrence  Godkin  —  Founder  of  The  Nafio?!  and 
Editor  of  the  New  York  Evening  Post 

Mr.  Godkin  emerged  from  anonymity  as  a  newspaper  correspondent 
to  a  position  of  power  as  editor  of  a  metropolitan  journal  of  national 
and  international  scope  and  influence. 


Literature  and  Journalism  i6g 

books  in  his  free  time.  As  a  mattei  of  fact,  more  than 
half  of  even  the  eminent  authors  in  our  language  have  had 
some  other  vocation  and  have  done  at  least  their  earlier 
writing  by  the  way.  The  great  majority  of  persons  who 
write  imcommonly  well  cannot  make  a  living  out  of  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  this  very  limitation  makes  writing 
an  especially  attractive  by-employment,  and  most  of  all 
for  women.  A  daughter  at  home,  a  housekeeper  who  can 
command  an  hour  or  two  a  day,  the  teacher  with  a  long 
vacation,  anybody,  in  short,  who  has  the  knack  of  writing 
at  all  and  is  not  absolutely  worked  to  death,  can  try 
authorship.  Again,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  no  one  who  has 
not  seen  the  writing  profession  from  the  inside  has  any 
idea  how  large  a  part  of  the  text  of  current  books  and 
magazines  is  written  by  women  with  husbands  and 
children.  If  any  one  is  skeptical,  let  him  run  over  the 
names  in  any  literary  list. 

One  writes  on  his  own  time,  sets  his  own  task,  selects 
his  own  employer,  lives  where  he  likes,  is  paid  strictly 
on  his  performance.  A  quarter's  worth  of  paper  is 
sufficient  capital;  the  upturned  bottom  of  a  bureau 
drawer  is  sufficient  business  plant.  Nobody  cares 
whether  the  author  is  old  or  young,  man  or  woman,  has 
taken  a  year  over  a  job  or  turned  it  off  in  a  week.  All 
that  one  has  to  do  is  to  make  out  "good  stuff,"  and  the 
rest  takes  care  of  itself. 

Writing,  moreover,  is  the  only  trade  that  exacts  neither 
training  nor  apprenticeship.  Stevenson  began  in  boyhood 
and  laboriously  taught  himself  to  write.  De  Morgan 
manufactured  tiles  through  youth  and  middle  life,  and 
then  in  his  old  age,  by  way  of  amusement,  turned  off  a 
succession  of  notable  works  of  fiction.  One  of  the  earliest 
of  the  "best  sellers"  was  written  by  a  man  w^ho  all  his  life 
had  been  drawing  for  Punch.     Miss  Alcott,  as  a  mere 


The  Halliday  Historic  Photograph  Co. 

Louisa  M.  Alcott 


Though  Miss  Alcott  had  neither  training  nor  experience  in  writing, 
her  stories  placed  her  among  the  most  successful  writers  of  the  day. 


Literature  and  J oiirnalism  IJI 

girl,  needed  the  money  and  simply  went  ahead  and 
wrote  with  neither  training  nor  practice  nor  experience; 
and  various  other  young  women  have  made  fame  and 
the  first-grade  magazines  at  virtually  the  first  try.  Of 
all  professional  talents  that  may  bring  high  prizes,  the 
word-sense  is  the  cheapest  to  cultivate  and  the  easiest 
to  test. 

Why  then  does  not  every  girl  who  is  tired  of  washing 
dishes,  emulate  Louisa  Alcott,  make  stories  out  of  the 
dish-washing,  sell  them  in  advance  at  fifty  dollars  each, 
and  when  bills  fall  thick,  do  two  of  them  in  a  day?  Why 
does  not  some  other  undergraduate,  to  whom  term  bills 
loom  large,  write  another  End  of  the  Bridge,  and  watch 
five  hundred  dollars  a  week  flow  through  the  box  office 
into  her  bank  account?  There  are  plenty  of  sailors  be- 
sides Bullen  and  Conrad;  plenty  of  young  ne'er-do-wells 
besides  Jack  London ;  plenty  of  hard-worked  cub  reporters 
besides  Rudyard  Kipling.  I  suppose  that  everywhere, 
in  every  large  city  in  the  land,  there  are  from  one  thousand 
to  thirty  thousand  persons  out  of  work,  each  of  whom 
has  had  some  experience  out  of  which  O.  Henry  would 
have  made  a  story  that  would  sell  out  a  whole  edition 
of  a  popular  magazine.  The  demand  for  good  stories  is 
insatiate;  the  supply  is  not  a  drop  in  the  bucket.  Yet 
not  one  of  us  goes  out  and  buys  a  pad  of  paper  to  live 
happily  forever  after. 

The  reason  why  we  do  not,  illustrates  with  peculiar 
force  the  essential  situation  with  regard  to  all  professional 
work.  Professional  men  and  women  of  medium  and  high 
grade  enjoy  a  virtual  monopoly  of  certain  kinds  and  levels 
of  ability.  They  can  do  something  that  the  world  will 
pay  for  having  done,  and  that  few  persons  can  do  or  by 
any  possibility  learn.  And  the  moral  is,  of  course,  to 
discover  and   cultivate   the   peculiar  talent   which   does 


I'll.-  Hallidiiy  Ifiatoric  Plintoi!rrH|)li  (' 


RUDYARD    KlPLINC 

Mr.  Kipling  is  an  example  of  that  most  uncommon  creature,  a 
newspaper  man  who  "arrives."  He  is  also  an  especial! v  good  instance 
of  a  man  of  genius  who  works  steadily  and  hard  along' the  line  of  his 
peculiar  gift,  without  touching  any  other  field.  Clemens  and  Kipling 
therefore,  represent  two  different  types  of  persons  who  follow  the  "gifted '' 
professions.  Present-day  tendencies  are  strongly  in  the  direction  of 
the  Kipling  type. 


Literature  and  Journalism 


173 


give  one  some  sort  of  exclusive  command  of  a  particular 
field. 

There  remains  the  third  group  of  word-minded  persons, 
those  who  make  a  living  neither  by  journalism  nor  by 
creative  literary  work;  who  love  books,  but  do  not  make 
them. 

Most  important  of  these  are  the  librarians.     As  the 


M:   II 

"l^  1  i  1  ! 

■ii 

J^W^fc       s^B^^J 

Brown  Bros. 


In  the  children's  room  in  a  modern  library.     Children's  reading 

rooms  are  rapidly  increasing  in  number,  and  librarians  of 

special  aptitude  and  training  for  such  work  are  needed 

to  guide  the  young  in  the  selection  of  their  reading 

wilder  parts  of  the  continent  become  cultivated,  and  as 
the  older  institutions  extend  their  sphere  of  influence, 
there  is  a  constantly  growing  demand  for  trained  library 
workers.  Some  of  these  specialize  in  cataloguing  for  large 
libraries;  some  take  charge  of  children's  reading  rooms. 
Many  more,  especially  women,  are  the  heads  of  small 
local  libraries,  either  public  collections  of  a  general  sort 


Charles  Knowles  Bolton 


Mr.  Bolton,  head  of  the  Library  of  the  Boston  Athenaeum,  one  of  the 
largest  institutional  libraries  in  the  country,  is  an  eminent  example 
oj  the  word-minded  person  who  does  not  belong  strictly  in  any  one 
of  the  three  groups.  He  has  writteti  many  books  and  has  achieved 
success  also  as  an  editor. 


Literature  and  J ournalism 


ns 


or  private  and  institutional  libraries  owned  by  historical 
and  scientific  societies,  and  the  hke.  Besides  these  there 
are  attendants  of  various  sorts  who  are  not  professional. 
The  field  is  an  attractive  one.  The  cataloguers  have 
to  be  college  graduates,  with  a  working  knowledge  of 
half  a  dozen  languages.  The  heads  of  small  libraries,  or 
of  local  branches  of  larger  ones,  need  have  only  a  brief 


^1 

-  \t      -  ~  - 


Brown  Bron, 


A  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  library.       The  librarian 

in  such  an  institutiofi  is  a  social  worker  of  much 

influence  for  good  in  the  community 

course  in  library  theory,  but  must  have  unlimited  tact  and 
gumption.  Much  of  this  work  is  of  the  nature  of  social 
service,  with  the  very  great  advantage  over  most  other 
sorts  that  the  librarian  tends  to  deal  with  the  more 
ambitious  and  capable  part  of  the  community,  and  to  see 
some  reward  for  her  labors.  One  thing  wth  another, 
the  range  of  qualities  is  pretty  wide. 


116  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

There  is,  moreover,  a  very  considerable  amount  of 
library  work  done  of  which  the  public  knows  nothing. 
Many  women  in  the  larger  cities  make  a  fair  living  by 
looking  up  materials  for  authors  and  scholars  in  other 
places.  They  become  specialists  in  the  resources  of  a 
particular  collection.  They  make  lists  of  books  on 
particular  topics.  They  read  and  siunmarize,  translate, 
or  quote  books  in  languages  which  their  employers  cannot 
handle,  verify  quotations,  copy  original  documents,  and 
in  various  ways  act  as  temporary  assistants  to  all  sorts 
of  users  of  books. 

This  work  pays  only  moderately  well,  about  like  teach- 
ing. But  on  the  other  hand,  it  gives  the  worker  command 
of  her  time,  and  it  can  be  readily  combined  with  almost 
any  sort  of  employment  from  housekeeping  to  author- 
ship. Besides  this,  it  brings  a  rewarding  contact  with 
interesting  books  and  with  important  and  especially 
interesting   people. 

One  thing  with  another,  tliis  whoie  fieid  of  non-creative 
literary  work  gives  a  most  attractive  outlook  to  all 
quiet  and  scholarly  persons;  and  most  especially  to 
women,   who  here  outnumber  the  men  three  to  one. 


CHAPTER  XVII 
The  Fine  Arts 

BUT  after  all,  writing,  even  the  highest  creative 
writing,  is  only  half  an  art.  The  thoroughgoing 
arts,  like  painting  and  music  and  acting,  and  the  thorough- 
going artists  that  practice  them,  are  something  quite 
different. 

Other  young  persons  who  flatter  themselves  that  they 
possess  genius  are  by  no  means  in  so  fortunate  a  situation 
as  is  the  would-be  author.  Singer,  dancer,  actor,  and 
painter  have  to  face  a  long,  an  arduous,  and  a  very  expen- 
sive training,  which  will  demand  their  full  effort  and  all 
the  money  their  families  can  spare.  Yet  much  of  this 
long  preparation  will  neither  try  them  out  in  advance,  as 
a  nurse's  docs,  nor  fit  them  for  some  other  sort  of  work, 
as  a  lawyer's  education  helps  him  in  business,  or  that  of  a 
man  of  science  makes  him  into  a  teacher.  One  may 
spend  years  on  voice  or  violin,  only  to  discover,  when  it  is 
too  late  to  learn  anything  else,  that  the  elaborate  technique 
has  nothing  bcliind  it,  or  the  real  talent  is  just  short  of 
the  level  which  brings  success.  The  fine  arts  are  too  often 
a  great  lottery,  with  few  prizes  and  many  blanks,  a 
rocky  road  with  nothing  at  its  end. 

The  prizes,  to  be  sure,  arc  among  the  largest  that 
there  are.  The  great  names  of  the  past  which  everybody 
remembers  are  either  those  of  kings  and  generals,  or  else 
of  artists.  Artists  as  a  whole  are  more  in  the  pubhc  eye, 
see  more  of  the  world,  are  known  to  more  different  and 
to  more  important  people  than  any  other  group.  Of  all 
work,  moreover,  theirs  is  the  most  like  play,  about  the 

12  177 


The  Hallidav  Historic  Photosraph  Co. 

William  Warren 


A  versatile  comedian  of  a  time  %vhen  the  standard  of  acting  was 
much  higher  than  now.  The  portrait  shows  well  the  "orator's  month" 
ivhich  actors  share  with  other  public  speakers 


The  Fine  Arts  i/Q 

only  sort  of  labor,  except  farming,  that  has  its  amateurs 
who  paint  or  act  or  sing  or  dance  for  the  fun  of  it. 

As  for  money  prizes,  no  royalties  on  invention  or  printed 
page  or  acted  play  equal  those  of  a  song  that  catches 
the  public  ear,  while  the  vogue  lasts.  No  professional 
fees  of  any  sort  so  much  as  approach  the  five  thousand 
dollars  a  night  of  Madame  Patti.  Incidentally,  one  may 
well  note  by  way  of  commentary  on  various  things  that 
are  said  of  men's  and  women's  wages,  that  not  only  are 
the  singers  the  highest  priced  of  all  servants  of  the  public, 
but  women  singers  at  the  top  of  their  profession  are 
commonly  paid  two  and  three  times  the  rewards  of  men 
on  the  same  level. 

But,  as  always,  with  the  great  rewards  go  many 
disappointments.  While  the  prima  donna  is  taking  her 
thousands  a  night,  the  chorus  girl  is  passing  rich  on  fif- 
teen dollars  a  week.  Actors  have  sometimes  done  nearly 
as  well  as  singers,  during  a  brief  run  of  luck.  But  the 
ordinary  evcr\'day  actor  whose  name  is  on  the  program 
could  well  afford  to  exchange  salaries  with  the  average 
clergyman,  while  even  the  glorious  matinee  idol  often 
cams  less  in  a  year  than  the  humble  grocer  who  supports 
him.  The  fact  is,  the  great  majority  of  actors  and 
actresses  could  not  make  a  li\'ing  at  all  if  they  did  not 
marry  one  another  and  keep  at  work. 

As  for  the  graphic  arts,  about  the  only  road  to  wealth 
is  to  abandon  art  entirely,  and  take  to  making  pretty 
pictures  like  the  Gibson  and  Fisher  girls  or  the  mural 
decorations  in  the  —  the  reader  may  supply  the  location 
for  himself. 

Yet  for  all  this,  the  outlook  for  the  art-minded  young 
person  is  by  no  means  altogether  dark.  Although  the 
American  public  as  a  whole  docs  not  care  the  snap  of  its 
fingers  for  any  form  of  beaut^^  the  small  group  which  does 


Brown  Bros. 


Daniel  C.  French  —  An  American  sculptor,  in  his  studio 

The  prizes  to  he  icon  in  the  fine  arts  are  among  the  largest  there  are, 
but  the  blanks  are  many,  and  appreciation  for  the  artist's  work  in  the 
United  States,  though  steadily  increasing,  is  still  sloiu. 


The  Fine  Arts  i8i 

care  is  steadily  growing.  Bad  as  our  domestic  architec- 
ture and  our  household  furnishings  still  are,  they  are 
not  nearly  so  bad  as  most  of  us  can  remember.  Once 
in  a  while,  even  a  public  building  is  well  designed.  The 
"arts  and  crafts,"  the  revival  of  pageantry,  the  various 
drama  leagues  and  little  theaters,  the  current  interest 
in  dancing,  a  dozen  other  movements  of  the  day,  are  all 
signs  of  the  times.  The  prospects  of  moderate  success 
and  a  reasonable  livelihood  in  most  fields  of  art  are  grow- 
ing better  rather  than  worse. 

Young  persons  with  the  artistic  gift,  however,  com- 
monly make  two  mistakes.  In  the  first  place,  they  forget 
that  special  talent  alone  does  not  carry  its  possessor  far 
enough  to  make  it  pay  to  start.  The  mere  architecture 
of  the  skull  does  not,  for  example,  make  a  singer.  One 
sings  with  the  brain.  To  be  sure,  one  cannot  sing  without 
a  voice;  but  unless  one  has  mind  and  character  to  back 
it  up,  to  stand  the  long  training,  to  criticize  one's  own 
performance,  to  have  something  to  express,  the  singing 
voice  will  count  for  little.  The  fine  arts  are  professions, 
and  they  demand  general  ability  on  the  professional  level. 

One  may  in  any  large  city,  during  any  winter,  if  he 
cares  to  waste  the  money,  attend  a  dozen  "recitals"  by 
as  many  young  women  who  have  spent  their  own  time 
and  their  parents'  money  cultivating  a  vox,  ct  praeterea 
nihil.  They  have  learned  the  language  of  music,  but 
have  nothing  to  express  in  it. 

One  may,  also  luckily  without  having  to  pay  for  it, 
attend  unlimited  "exhibitions"  by  other  delightful  young 
men  and  women  who  have  had  a  year  or  two  in  Paris. 
They  give  charming  bohemian  suppers  in  their  pretty 
studios,  and  they  paint  very  pleasing  little  pictures, 
which  nobody  looks  at  twice.  Again  the  speech  of  art, 
with  nothing  to  say. 


iS. 


Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 


In  other  words,  the  fine  arts  are  exactly  like  the  other 
professions.  They  presuppose  some  sort  of  special  call. 
But  they  also  presuppose  the  same  scholarship,  char- 
acter, and  personal  quality  that  make  success  in  other 
high  vocations. 

For  the  second  error,  young  persons  who  really  do  have 
the  artistic  temperament  combined  with  respectable 
general  ability  are  too  much  inclined  to  give  heed  to  the 
traditional  advice  to  "aim  high,"  to  "hitch  your  wagon 
to  a  star."  The  rewards  of  the  "star,"  both  material 
and  immaterial,  are  very  great.  But  most  of  the  hundred 
thousand  musicians  of  this  country  are  not  prima  donnas. 
Most  of  them  are  not  even  in  the  back  row  of  the  chorus. 


Metropolitan  Park  Commission,  Boston 

A  university  boat  house,  which  once  would  have  been  planned  by  the 
builder,  now  demands  the  services  of  an  architect 


The  Fi}ie  Arts 


Boston 


.1  decorative  pier  on  the  Anderson  bridge,  near  the  Harvard  Stadium 

in   Boston.     The  current  art  revival  in  the   United  States  is 

opening  new  fields  to  artists  and  desigrwrs,  and  prospects 

of  recognition  for  their  efforts  are  steadily  growing 

They  are  teaching  children,  in  school  and  out;  they  are 
playing  in  orchestras;  they  are  leading  church  choirs  or 
[^residing  over  church  organs.  Some  of  them  are  tuning 
pianos  or  helping  to  sell  the  same. 

So  with  the  draftsmen  and    the    colorists.     Most  of 
them  actually  get  a  li\ang  by    illustrating   books   and 


It) 4  \'ocational  Guidance  Jor  the  Professions 

designing  covers,  making  patterns  for  calico  and  wall 
paper,  engraving  bank  bills  for  other  persons  to  spend. 
All  the  fine  arts  have  their  everyday  side;  and  it  is  on 
this  everyday  side  that  they  are  most  profitably  entered. 

And  yet  few  young  people  who  are  considering  an 
artistic  career  seem  to  realize  at  all  how  much  interest- 
ing and  worthy  and  well-rewarded  work  there  is  to  be 
done  which  is  not  concerned  primarily  with  any  con- 
spicuous public  performance  or  success.  How  many 
sound  musicians,  for  example,  are  on  the  faculties  of 
colleges  or  the  teaching  staffs  of  the  secondary  schools! 
Some  of  them  write  oratorios.  Some  are  students  of 
musical  history  or  musical  theory,  and  rank  with  expert 
scholars  in  other  fields.  A  great  many  combine  some 
playing  of  instruments,  most  especially  of  course  the 
organ,  with  the  training  of  choirs  or  of  other  musical 
organizations. 

In  fact,  there  is  a  well-marked  and  growing  field  for 
musicians,  especially  men.  to  take  charge  of  the  entire 
musical  programs  of  the  better  schools.  They  are 
essentially  school  officers,  members  of  the  teaching  force, 
who  organize  and  administer  their  departments  as  do 
other  instructors.  They  have  to  look  out  for  chapel 
services  and  public  concerts,  to  do  missionary  work  in 
educating  the  public  taste  in  music,  to  train  the  school 
choir,  the  school  glee  club,  and  the  school  orchestra,  or 
at  least  to  be  responsible  for  it  all.  In  addition,  they 
commonly  teach  one  or  two  instruments,  or  see  that 
some  one  else  does  it  competently,  and  they  often  give 
class  instruction  in  musical  subjects.  Often  times,  nat- 
urally, they  "double,"  and  teach  other  subjects  also, 
commonly  a  language 

Closely  related  to  this  field  is  the  work  of  the  choir- 
masters of  the   larger  city   churches.      These   men,    in 


Clarence  Eddy  —  Organist 


Hartsook 


Though  Mr.  Eddy  has  been  a  most  conspicuous  public  performer, 
his  chief  life  ivork  has  been  that  of  choirmaster,  church  organist, 
director  of  musical  organizations,  musical  instructor,  school  adminis- 
trator, and  author. 


1 86  Vocational  Guidance  jar  the  Professions 

addition,  sometimes  take  on  more  or  less  ill-defined 
duties  in  connection  with  various  sorts  of  church  work 
with  boys,  church  brigades,  boy  scouts,  and  the  like. 
Then,  of  course,  there  are  the  special  teachers  of  sing- 
ing in  the  public  schools. 

Here,  then,  is  an  important  field  lying  midway  be- 
tween music  and  teaching,  and  demanding  the  qualities 
of  success  in  both.  In  general,  the  demands  on  the 
teaching  side  are  perhaps  a  little  less  severe  than  for 
the  regular  class  teacher;  while  as  a  musician,  sound 
training  is  more  in  evidence  than  much  real  genius. 
But  the  training  should  be  broader  than  for  either  alone, 
while  the  combination  is  uncommon  enough  to  be  worth 
watching  for. 

In  the  same  way,  between  teaching  and  the  graphic 
arts,  lies  another  large  field  that  is  well  worth  cultivat- 
ing. Schools  nowadays,  schools  of  many  different  types, 
are  giving  an  increasing  attention  to  all  forms  of  draft- 
ing and  color.  The  range,  too,  is  wide,  from  the  real 
artist  who  can  educate  the  soul  as  well  as  train  the 
hand,  to  the  manipulator  of  T-square  and  drawing- 
board  who  may  be  fundamentally  a  mathematician  or  a 
machinist.  The  last  of  these,  especially,  may  be  pri- 
marily teachers  of  other  subjects  and  take  their  work 
with  brush  or  ruling  pen  as  a  side  issue.  As  the  market 
is  now,  every  prospective  teacher  will  do  well  to  culti- 
vate any  talent,  however  small,  in  the  direction  of  color 
and  line. 

To  sum  up,  then:  Every  young  genius,  whether  writer, 
dancer,  player,  painter,  or  musician,  does  well  to  hitch 
his  wagon  both  to  a  star  and  to  the  earth.  Whatever 
he  may  hope  for  in  the  way  of  fame  and  money,  if  he 
succeeds  highly,  he  owes  it  to  himself  to  have  some 
definite,  commonplace,  commercial,  routine,  "useful"  side 


The  Fine  Arts  iSy 

of  his  art  out  of  which  he  has  been  trained  to  make  a 
Hving.  No  matter  how  hot  the  divine  fire  may  burn, 
each  hopeful  genius  wants  something  to  fall  back  on  if 
it  goes  out.  Let  him,  then,  make  himself  able  to  teach 
school,  or  to  draw  posters,  or  to  catalogue  books.  A  little 
more  work  while  he  is  about  it,  a  little  keeping  his  eyes 
open  to  common  opportunities,  a  little  wider  training 
to  connect  with  some  related  fields,  and  the  youth  has 
two  strings  to  his  bow  in  place  of  one. 

All  of  which  advice  is  so  very  common-sense  and 
wholesome  that  there  is  not  the  slightest  hope  that  any- 
body will  pay  the  least  attention  to  it.  Besides,  there 
is  always  the  hundredth  man  who  is  beyond  all  rules. 
And  even  if  the  born  artist  does  not  make  a  living,  he 
has  always  with  him  "the  inward  and  incommunicable 
joys"  which  are  the  real  reward  of  his  art. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
Professional  Fitness  and  the    "Unit  Character" 

THUS  far  we  have  been  considering  the  professions, 
for  the  most  part,  in  their  relation  to  one  another. 
We  have  seen  how  they  naturally  group  themselves  into 
(i)  the  old  "learned"  set  which  has  come  down  from 
the  immemorial  past,  differentiated  from  the  primitive 
sorcerer,  astrologer,  witch  doctor,  and  medicine  man,  who 
is  the  first  professional  person  to  appear  in  early  society; 

(2)  the  very  modem  and  also  learned  set  which  has  been 
professionalized   out   of   the   medieval    handicrafts;    and 

(3)  finally  the  ornamental  "gifted"  set  that  has  descended 
from  the  story-tellers  and  dancers  of  the  Arabian  Nights 
and  the  harpers  and  ballad-mongers  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
We  have  noted  how  largely,  in  spite  of  obvious  over- 
lappings,  each  of  these  three  groups  sends  out  its  call 
to  a  somewhat  different  kind  of  man  or  woman. 

We  have  also  seen  how,  starting  with  the  law,  which 
demands  high  general  ability  but  no  particular  gift,  we 
may  pass  by  small  gradations  through  the  ministry, 
teaching,  medicine,  and  the  rest,  and  by  the  addition 
of  one  special  talent  after  another  finally  reach,  at  the 
end  of  the  line,  vocal  music,  which  demands  very  spe- 
cial gifts  indeed,  even  to  the  conformation  of  the  bones. 
Somewhere  in  this  series  any  boy  or  girl  who  is  of  pro- 
fessional grade  should  be  able,  in  a  general  way,  to  place 
himself. 

Let  us  now,  however,  turn  from  the  professions  in 
general  to  certain  aspects  of  the  detailed  qualities  which 
fit  for  them.     After  one  has  seen  the  work  which  seems 

188 


Professional  Fitness  and  the  ''Unit  Character"    i8g 


Story  hour  in  the  open.     The  children's  favorite  story-teller  belongs 

to  the  group  of  "gifted"  professionals  that  have  descended  from 

the  bards  and  troubadours  of  ancient  and  medieval  times 

on  the  whole  worth  doing,  and  for  which  one  is  on  the 
whole  fitted,  there  still  remains  the  need  of  taking  stock 
of  one's  specific  talents.  Let  us,  in  short,  for  the  moment, 
look  at  professional  fitness  as  an  accidental  combination 
of  quite  independent  "unit  characters." 

This  new  doctrine  of  the  "unit  character,"  one  need 
hardly  remind  the  reader,  is  proving  itself  in  the 
biological  sciences  to  be  perhaps  the  most  fertile  of  all 
recent  ideas  that  touch  upon  the  nature  of  living  things. 
It  has  already  modified  profoundly  our  whole  conception  of 
the  evolutionary  process  in  animals  and  plants.  It  has 
given  us  an  insight  into  the  laws  of  heredity  in  all  living 
things  such  as  was  not  so  much  as  dreamed  of  even 
as  late  as  the  beginning  of  this  present  century.  More- 
over,  on  the  practical  side,  it  is  fairly  revolutionizing 


iQo  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

our  methods  of  breeding  both  animals  and  plants;  and 
giving  us  such  a  control  over  the  lower  creatures  as 
promises,  one  dare  not  prophesy  how  much,  for  the 
welfare  of  mankind.  The  new  doctrine  has,  moreover, 
great  possibilities  in  the  field  of  vocational  guidance. 

In  brief,  then,  as  a  result  of  the  biological  work  of 
the  last  fifteen  years,  we  have  come  to  look  upon  any 
living  organism,  whether  plant,  animal,  or  man,  as  an 
assemblage  of  somewhat  independent  unit  qualities,  any 
one  of  which  may  be  taken  out  or  put  in  without  much 
affecting  the  rest.  Burbank,  for  example,  picks  out  a 
flower  with  an  agreeable  odor,  cross  breeds  it  with 
another  which  lacks  all  perfume,  and  as  a  result  obtains 
the  second  blossom,  in  all  respects  precisely  as  it  was 
before,    except   that   it   smells.      Biffin   creates   a   rust- 


Brown  Bros. 

A  field  of  prickly  pear  or  spineless  cactus.     A   food  good  for 

both  man  and  beast  developed  by  Mr.  Burbank  from 

the   original   worthless   thorny  cactus 


Projcssional  Fitness  and  the  ''Unit  Character''    igi 

proof  British  wheat,  by  picking  out  the  most  desirable 
American  variety  and  simply  adding  on  to  it  the  desired 
unit  character,  ability-to-resist-rust-infection-in-spite-of- 
a-damp-climate.  The  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture  will  inform  any  farmer  how  to  dehorn  his 
cattle  permanently  so  that  no  calf  in  his  herds  shall  ever 
grow  horns  again.  Doubtless,  if  it  were  commercially 
worth  while,  the  Department  would  print  a  bulletin 
telling  how   to   put   horns   on   a  horse. 

Nor  is  human  nature  in  the  least  different  from 
other  forms  of  life.  We  all  know  families  in  which  the 
unit  character,  ability-to-form-brown-pigment-in-the-hair, 
sporadically  drops  out,  leaving  certain  individuals  either 
red-haired  or  albino  according  as  there  is  present  or 
absent  the  ability,  also  a  unit  character,  to  form  the 
other,  red-yellow  pigment.  There  are  families  in  which 
a  certain  proportion  of  the  children  have  both  thumbs 
and  both  great  toes  doubled,  while  all  the  rest  of  the 
children  and  all  the  rest  of  the  digits  are  normal.  There 
are  strains  in  which  color-blindness  jum])s  from  generation 
to  generation,  missing  all  the  girls  but  catching  a  fixed 
proportion  of  the  boys.  One  need  not  go  on ;  the  newer 
books  on  this  subject  teem  with  illustrations. 

The  mind  is  in  this  precisely  like  the  body.  A  talent 
for  drawing  or  for  color  or  for  music,  a  liking  for  travel 
or  a  preference  for  staying  at  home,  a  taste  for  machin- 
ery or  a  dislike  for  dirtying  one's  hands,  all  seem  to  be 
just  such  unit  characters  as  horns  on  a  cow  or  rust 
resistance  in  a  breed  of  wheat.  Any  one  of  these  may 
occur  or  be  wanting  without  making  any  difference  with 
anything  else. 

All  this  is,  I  say,  highly  important  from  the  stand- 
point of  vocational  guidance.  Each  one  of  us  has  cer- 
tain qualities  born  in  him.      If  they  are  there,  we  can 


IQ2  Vocational  (iiiidance  for  the  Professions 

cultivate  them  in  y)roportion  to  their  amount,  our  own 
opportunity,  and  the  other  quahties  which  happen  to 
accompany  them.  If  they  are  not  there  by  nature,  no 
amount  of  taking  thought  will  add  one  cubit  unto  our 
stature  or  make  one  hair  white  or  black. 

But  each  vocation  demands  its  own  collection  of 
native  unit  characters.  If  one  be  lacking,  "the  chain  is 
no  stronger  than  its  weakest  link." 

But  on  the  other  hand,  one  such  unit  may  serve  this, 
that,  or  the  other  end  as  it  chances  to  be  linked  up 
with  this,  that,  or  the  other  combination.  One  may, 
for  example,  have  great  manual  dexterity.  He  is  then, 
by  so  much,  fitted  to  become  a  champion  billiard 
player,  or  a  surgeon,  or  a  draftsman,  or  a  painter, 
according  to  the  other  qualities  which  chance  to  accom- 
pany the  special  sleight  of  hand.  But  the  boy  or  girl 
who  lacks  dexterity  is  by  that  lack  cut  off  from  any  of 
these  vocations.  The  keen  observer  may  become  a  great 
naturalist,  or  a  great  diagnostician,  or  a  writer  of  realistic 
novels.  Who  SO  has  eyes  and  sees  not,  cannot  be  any  of 
these.  A  love  for  children  is  about  equally  rewarded  in 
the  primary-school  teacher  or  the  nurse  in  a  children's 
hospital.  A  pleasing  voice  is  an  asset  for  politician, 
clergyman,   jury  lawyer,   actor,   and   singer. 

Or  take,  by  way  of  further  illustration,  the  question 
of  bodily  size.  There  are  certain  occupations  where 
mere  bigness  of  frame  is  a  distinct  advantage,  and 
where  on  the  other  hand  a  little  man  is  decidedly 
handicapped.  The  ministry  is  one  such.  So  too, 
possibly  to  a  less  extent,  is  teaching.  Engineers,  as  we 
have  seen,  are  commonly  big  men.  So,  in  general,  are 
the  most  effective  public  speakers.  In  short,  size  of 
body  counts  in  any  profession  where  it  is  necessary  to 
influence   or  control   or  command  dircctlv  numbers  of 


Professional  Fitness  and  the  "Unit  Character"    igj 


Brown  Brop. 


In  the  work  of  the  kindergarten  teacher  is  found  a  rich  store  of 
satisfaction  and  reivard  for  those  who  love  children 

other  men.  In  fact,  it  would  be  difficult  to  cite  more 
than  the  merest  handful  of  instances  in  which  a  man  of 
less  than  average  stature  has  become  a  great  preacher, 
an  orator  in  any  field,  a  great  jury  lawyer,  or  even  a 
great  politician.  Napoleon  set  mighty  men  of  war  to 
fighting  one  another.  A  little  solicitor  may  brief  a 
huge  barrister.  Several  small  "bosses"  in  American 
politics  have  pulled  very  long  wires.  But  the  big  men 
make  the  public  appearance.  It  is  the  beam  rather 
the  mote  that  gets  in  the  public  eye. 

Any  man,  then,  under  five  feet  and  a  half  tall  may 
well  hesitate  before  he  enters  the  ministry,  fits  himself 
to  plead  at  the  bar,  attempts  to  teach  outside  the 
graduate  school  of  a  university,  or  acts  on  the  stage. 
For  a  physician  on  the  other  hand,  for  an  office  lawyer, 
for  a  "researcher"  in  most  branches  of  science,  for  a 
painter,  an  author,  a  scholar,  stature  is  of  the  smallest 

13 


194 


I  ocational  Guidance  Jor  the  Professions 


moment.      Here  an  ounce  more  of  brains  offsets  a  stone 
or  two  of  brawn. 

Unfortunately,  perhaps,  this  whole  question  of  the 
unit  characters  of  human  nature  and  their  relation  to 
the  several  occupations  of  our  mod^'rn  world,  has  rather 
a  negative  than  a  positive  value.      A  knowledge  of  unit 


mm 

as        t^^' 


'"""^  Ml% 


nmB 


Brown  Bro 


Outdoor  ward  in  a  children's  hospital.      What  more  persuasive  call 
to  a  profession  than  is  the  children's  ward  to  the  lover  of  children? 


Professional  Fitness  and  the  "  Tnit  Character''    193 

characters  serves  less  to  show  to  3'outh  the  field  which 
it  should  enter  than  to  warn  it  of  the  places  where  it 
has  no  business  to  go.  One's  general  quality,  one's 
main  interests,  indicate  what  he  probably  will  be  able  to 
do.  Then  come  in  one's  si^ecific  attributes  to  show 
from  what  particular  work  he  is  cut  off.  Who  does 
not  know  persons  admirably  fitted  for  the  work  of 
teaching,  save  only  that  they  are  nervous  and  shy  ? 
Who  does  not  know  clergymen  with  all  the  learning  and 
the  zeal  and  the  preaching  gift  that  should  carry  them 
far,  yet  who  have  no  social  tact  and  are  alwa>'s  in 
trouble  ?  There  are  skillful  physicians  who  cannot 
keep  secrets.  There  are  gifted  engineers  who  have  no 
business  sense.  There  are  would-be  journalists  who 
lack  the  "nose  for  news."  All  such  persons  fail  to 
respect  their  limitations.  The  matter  is  worth  dwelling 
on,  because  it  has  been  thus  far  largely  ignored  by 
persons  who  have  had  to  do  with  most  forms  of  voca- 
tional guidance.  By  way  of  still  further  illustration, 
take  the  two  contrasting  types  of  character  which  the 
late  Professor  Miinsterberg  has  analyzed  with  peculiar 
insight. 

There  are,  on  the  one  hand,  certain  persons  who  love 
uniformity.  They  want  to  catch  the  same  car  every 
morning;  to  eat  at  the  same  restaurant,  if  possible  at 
the  same  table,  with  the  same  waiter;  they  rest  their 
minds  by  playing  the  same  number  of  holes  of  golf 
every  afternoon  or  the  same  number  of  hands  at  whist 
every  evening.  They  even  go  so  far  as  to  acquire  a 
house  of  their  own  at  seaside  or  mountain  resort  in 
order  that  even  their  vacations  from  home  may  be  all 
exactly  alike.  The  fact  that  such  persons  have  done  a 
thing  once  gives  them  suflficient  reason  for  continuing  it 
forever  afterwards. 


ig6  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  another  type  of  human 
being  to  whom  once  doing  anything  is  the  all-sufficient 
reason  for  never  doing  it  again.  Not  routine  but 
variety  is  their  passion.  Even  an  unpleasant  experi- 
ence is  welcome  if  only  it  be  new.  Their  interest  is  in 
new  places  to  dine,  new  places  to  visit,  new  people,  the 
latest  fashion  in  opinions  no  matter  how  absurd. 

Obviously,  these  two  sorts  of  person  cannot  both  be 
happy  in  the  same  sorts  of  work.  The  one  as,  let  us 
say,  a  nurse,  will  prefer  an  office  or  a  hospital.  The 
other  will  choose  private  nursing  or  "the  district." 
The  second  sort,  with  the  teacher's  bias,  will  be  driven 
wild  with  the  monotony  of  class  work,  year  after  year, 
but  will  revel  in  a  lecture  tour.  But  the  first  sort  of 
person  will  grow  into  his  schoolroom  till  every  fiber  of 
his  being  clings  to  each  desk  and  chair. 

On  the  intellectual  side,  this  difference  in  tempera- 
ment leads  the  man  of  science  to  keep  altering  his 
opinions  with  each  new  discovery  up  to  the  end  of  his 
days.  For  him,  every  belief  is  but  a  stepping-stone  to 
another.  Nothing  is  ever  finally  settled.  But  to  be 
happy  in  the  ministry,  one  must  be  of  the  type  which, 
in  callow  youth,  commits  itself  finally  to  some  one  set 
of  doctrines  which,  in  theory  at  least,  it  were  sin  ever  to 
question.  Two  men  might,  the  one  preach  the  gospel 
and  the  other  lecture  on  electrical  theory.  They  might 
be  very  much  alike  in  ability,  in  personality,  in  learning. 
But  they  would,  if  they  fitted  their  tasks,  be  so  unlike 
in  this  single  quality  of  temperament  that  each  would 
be  miserable  in  the  other's  place. 

One  could  go  on  at  very  great  length  and  point  out 
all  sorts  of  peculiar  unit  characters  of  intellect,  of  body, 
and  of  temperament  which  would  more  or  less  interfere 
with  this,  that,  or  the  other  vocation;  or  in  other  cases 


Professional  Fitness  and  the  "Unit  Character"    igy 

would  not  probably  make  the  least  difference.  Any 
one  can  see  for  himself  how  certain  characteristics  do 
not  go  with  certain  occupations,  so  that  no  amount  of 
excellence  in  other  ways  will  offset  their  handicap.  Any 
student  of  human  nature  can  develop  the  point  at  any 
length. 

In  fine,  then,  we  shall  probably  get  the  surest  insight 
into  problems  of  vocational  guidance  if  we  adopt  the 
point  of  view  of  the  modern  student  of  biology  and  look 
upon  human  nature  as  a  mosaic  of  somewhat  independ- 
ent qualities,  qualities  which  do  not  in  general  hang 
together,  and  which  may  occur  in  almost  any  com- 
bination. 

Then  we  have  to  consider  just  what  combination  of 
these  independent  qualities  is  essential  to  success  in 
each  field  of  labor,  how  far  these  qualities  where  they 
seem  naturally  lacking  can  be  developed  by  education; 
and  how  far,  on  the  other  hand,  they  are  inborn  and 
beyond  our  power  to  control.  In  general,  be  it  added, 
precise  studies  of  most  of  these  unit  characters  prove 
that  our  control  over  them  is  very  much  less  than  we 
used  to  think  up  to  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
After  this  comes  the  analysis  of  the  individual  boy 
or  girl  to  deteraiine  just  what  his  unit  characters  are. 
Always,  among  all  these,  general  ability,  native  brain 
power  that  is  to  say,  is  by  far  the  most  important. 
Next  come  the  special  aptitudes  for  the  particular  voca- 
tion, with  special  attention  to  the  failures  and  absences 
which  will  be  handicaps  in  the  proposed  work.  The 
study  of  why  other  men  have  failed  is  no  less  important 
than  a  knowledge  of  why  they  have  succeeded. 

One  must,  therefore,  if  he  would  do  well  in  his  life 
work,  go  over  his  proposed  occupation  and  himself, 
quality  by  quahty.      It  is  not  enough  that  he  should 


igH  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

be,  in  general,  of  the  legal  type  or  the  engineering  type 
or  the  artistic  type,  with  a  liking  for  this,  that,  or  the 
other  sort  of  work.      He  must  be  sure,  in  addition,  that 
there  is  some  particular  subdivision  of  his  general  pro- 
fessional  field   which   will   not  demand  any  single  unit 
character  which  he  does  not  possess  and  cannot  some- 
how cultivate.    Vocational  success  is  like  house-building. 
It  is  not  enough  to  provide  bricks  for  a  brick  house,  wood 
for  a  wooden  house,  or  stones  for  a  stone  house.     There 
must  be  also  each  separate  size  of  nail  and  screw  and 
window  pane,  even  to  the  hasp  that  closes  the  wood- 
shed door,  else  the  dwelling  is  not  complete.     In  all  the 
reams  that   are  being  written  on   vocational    guidance 
there  is  no  truer  saying  than  this:  "  If  any  man  keep  the 
whole  law  and  yet  ofifend  in  one  point,  he  is  guilty  of  all." 
The  doctrine  of  unit  characters,  moreover,  should  put 
us  on  our  guard  against  trusting  too  implicitly  to  the 
forces  of  heredity.      It  is  indeed  true,  as  we  have  al- 
ready seen  at  length  in  earlier  portions  of  this  work, 
that   an  established   family   tends   to   hold   steadily   its 
level   of   general   ability.      This   is   because,    as   Pierson 
and   others  have   abundantly  shown,   men   and   women 
alike  tend  to  marry  about  on  their  own  mental  grade, 
so  that  each  child  tends  always  to  get  an  equal  inherit- 
ance from  both  sides  of  the  house.      There  is,  further- 
more,  as  also  we  have  seen,   a  marked  tendency    for 
certain    specific    abilities,    qualifications    for    particular 
professions,  to  pass  along  from  generation  to  generation 
undiminished.      This  is  partly  because  men  are  likely  to 
marry  the  sisters   of  their  associates  and  thus  provide 
their  sons  with  an  inheritance  from  another  family  like 
their  own,    and    partly  because   general    ability,    which 
does   run   in    families,  is  after   all   the   most   important 
single  element  in  professional  success. 


Professional  Fitness  and  the  ''Unit  Character''    igg 

Nevertheless,  the  fact  remains  that  husbands  and 
wives,  however  much  ahke  they  may  be  in  general 
quality,  do  nearly  always  differ  strikingly  in  single  unit 
characters  of  mind  and  temperament.  Thus,  to  cite 
another  actual  case  from  the  profession  that  is  most 
familiar  to  most  readers  of  this  text,  an  uncommonly 
successful  teacher,  especially  strong  in  discipline,  married 
a  wife  who  had  failed  as  a  teacher. for  lack  of  just  that 
power  of  leadership  which  is  the  basis  of  good  discipline. 
Their  son  had  apparently  all  the  qualities  of  his  father. 
He  enjoyed  teaching.  He  loved  books.  In  all  respects 
but  one  he  seemed  better  equipped  than  his  father  for  the 
father's  profession.  But  he  favored  his  mother  in  one 
point  —  he  could  not  inspire  a  following.  Therefore  he 
did  not  make  a  teacher,  and  after  trying  for  half  a  dozen 
years  turned  to  another  occupation.  He  had  all  the 
teaching  virtues  except  one.     For  lack  of  that  he  missed. 

Yet  we  must  not  forget  that  there  is  also  the  con- 
verse case,  where  the  father  disappoints  expectation  for 
lack  of  some  single  quality  that  would  make  his  equip- 
ment complete ;  and  where  the  son  takes  that  lacking  unit 
from  his  mother,  in  whom  it  appears  in  quite  different 
combination.   The  principle,  fortunately,  works  both  ways. 

One  must,  then,  in  dealing  with  a  youth  who  seems 
fitted  for  some  vocation  which  runs  strongly  in  his 
family,  always  be  on  one's  guard  against  mistaking  a 
nearly  complete  equipment  of  the  ancestral  qualities  for 
one  absolutely  complete.  No  two  persons  are  alike, 
and  no  person  is  ever  precisely  fitted  for  any  special 
task.  We  must  make  sure  that  the  little  differences 
among  the  greater  likenesses  are  not  of  an  essential 
sort.  This  is  equally  the  case  whether  we  are  dealing 
with  a  resemblance  to  a  successful  relative  in  the  pro- 
fession or  to  our  ideal  of  a  type  that   should   succeed. 


I 


CHAPTER  XIX 
Professional  Quality  and  Its  Amount 

T  IS  not,  however,  enough  to  know  that  one  has  or 
has  not  any  gift.  One  must,  in  addition,  know 
whether  he  has  enough  of  it  to  have  any  market  value. 

It  has  long  been  the  practice  among  statisticians  to 
rate  any  sort  of  measurable  quality  by  the  percentage  of 
individuals  who  have  the  particular  property  in  less 
measure  than  the  individual  under  consideration.  Thus, 
for  example,  the  American  adult  man  who  stands  five  feet 
and  eight  inches  in  height,  weighs  one  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds,  and  can  lift  about  one  sixth  of  a  ton,  is  just  about 
mediocre,  and  is  said  to  be  in  each  of  these  respects  in 
the  fifty  per  cent  class.  That  is  to  say,  about  an  equal 
number  of  his  fellows  surpass  him  and  fall  short.  But 
the  six-footer  who  weighs  two  hundred,  and  can  lift  a 
fourth  of  a  ton,  will  be  well  up  in  the  first  quarter  of 
his  group.  He  will  therefore  be  along  in  the  eighty 
and  ninety  per  cent  classes.  Whoso  can  outdo  only  one 
in  each  ten  of  his  mates  is  in  the  ten  per  cent  class. 

Manual  skill,  for  example,  has  its  reward  even  in 
amounts  below  mediocrity.  The  girl  who  puts  breakfast 
foods  into  paper  boxes  is  a  low-skilled  laborer.  Yet  there 
arc  levels  below  her — persons  who  cannot  do  even  this 
simple  work  for  lack  of  human  hands,  and  so  drop  to  a 
still  lower  industrial  level.  Rated  statistically,  there- 
fore, skill  of  hand  begins  to  show  in  money  returns  even 
as  low  as  the  twenty-five  per  cent  class.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  singing  voice  has  to  reach  the  ninety  per  cent 
class  before  it  becomes  acceptable  in  an  amateur,  and  to 

200 


Professional  Quality  and  Its  Amount 


201 


While  no  higher  manual  skill  than  is  required  in  packing  food  into 

paper  boxes  is  sure  of  a  money  return,  professional  capacity 

must  rank  toward  the  hundred  per  cent  efficiency 

before  it  can  count  on  a  market 


go  beyond  ninety-nine  per  cent  of  excellence  before  it 
yields  a  living.  The  successful  grand-opera  star  is  picked 
from  ten  thousand  or  ten  million. 

Apply,  then,  this  principle  to  any  of  the  elements  of 
professional  success.  Administrative  capacity  has  a 
market  value  almost  everywhere.  Anything  above  the 
seventy-five  per  cent  class  lifts  its  possessor  out  of  the 
mass  of  workers,  while  the  higher  grades  bring  the  great 
prizes  of  the  commercial  world.  But  for  a  clergyman, 
high  endowment  is  hardly  better  than  moderate  ability, 
unless  he  have  with  it  enough  of  tact,  scholarship,  or  elo- 
quence to  put  him  into  a  church  large  enough  to  need  high 
executive  gifts.  A  physician  may  have  ample  patience 
and  tact  for  ordinary  ofhce  practice,  and  yet  not  enough 
of  cither  for  him  to  specialize  in  nervous  and  mental 
diseases.  A  nurse  "on  the  district"  needs  uncommon 
stamina  and  hardihood  to  handle  all  sorts  of  emergencies 


202  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 


Brown  iiroa. 


In  the  manual-training  department  of  a  public  school.     Manual 
skill,  however  crude,  will  always  bring  some  money  return. 
Professional  quality,  on  the  other  hand,  must  reach 
a  high  standard  before  it  can  secure  any  con- 
sideration or  any  acceptable  reward 

and  be  out  in  all  sorts  of  weather;  but  the  necessary- 
amount  of  these  will  depend  on  many  different  circum- 
stances, while  unless  both  reach  a  certain  level  they 
might  as  well  not  be  at  all.  A  voice  below  fifty  per  cent 
quality  will  be  no  special  handicap  to  a  lawyer,  because 
he  can  stick  to  office  practice;  but  it  would  be  a  sad 
handicap  to  a  clergyman,  because  virtually  all  clergymen 
have  to  preach.  The  temper  which  is  quite  adequate  for 
the  solitary  scientific  worker  might  frazzle  out  forthwith 
in  a  public  school. 

One  must,  then,  if  he  is  to  carry  his  vocational 
analysis  far  enough  to  be  of  much  use  either  to  him- 
self or  to  anybody  else,  learn  to  think  of  human  nature 
quantitatively.  After  all,  it  is  just  this  quantitative 
point  of  view,  this  perpetual  demand  for  "just  how 
much,"  that  has  made  modern  science  and  that  separates 
sound  thinking  from  haziness  and  quackery.      We  must, 


Professional  Quality  and  Its  Amount  20j 

in  short,  think  of  human  quahties,  not  merely  as  being 
present  or  wanting,  but  also  as.  in  some  degree 
measurable. 

One  cannot  emphasize  this  point  too  heavily.  It  is 
said  to  require  a  more  accurate  muscular  sense  to  work 
in  metal  than  to  work  in  wood,  but  more  general 
"brains"  to  make  a  carpenter  than  to  make  a  mechanic. 
In  like  manner,  for  a  boy  who  looks  forward  to  medicine 
it  is  vastly  more  important  to  be  the  first  scholar  in  his 
class  than  to  be  captain  of  the  baseball  team.  The  public 
demands  of  the  physician  grade  "A"  in  scholarship.  It 
lets  him  off  with  an  "E"  in  the  social  and  tempera- 
mental gifts  that  make  the  athletic  leader.  But  for  a 
prospective  clergyman  the  reverse  is  the  case.  A  "C" 
in  scholarship,  a  rating  among  his  mates  along  in  the 
fifty  per  cent  class,  will  do.  But  in  manliness  and 
leadership,  in  social  and  moral  qualities,  he  ought  to 
grade  above  nineteen  in  twenty  of  his  companions.  For 
after  all  is  said,  no  normal  man  ever  utterly  lacks  any 
human  quality,  and  no  man  ever  possesses  any  quite  to 
perfection.  The  best  memory  in  the  world  lets  go  more 
than  it  holds.  The  ear  that  confuses  "Old  Hundred" 
with  "Yankee  Doodle"  still  does  not  mistake  a  piccolo 
for  a  base  drum.  Barring  a  few  special  gifts,  we  all  of 
us  have,  in  very  fair  measure,  every  quality  that  equips 
the  leader  of  every  separate  vocation.  We  differ  from 
one  another  in  degree,  not  in  kind. 

Each  of  us,  then,  whether  we  are  considering  our  own 
vocational  future  or  that  of  another,  needs  to  make 
clear  to  himself  the  answers  to  these  three  questions: 

How  much  of  the  several  qualities  that  go  to  make 
up  human  nature  does  this  particular  vocation  demand' 

How  much  of  each  of  these  several  qualities  does  this 
particular  individual  possess? 


204  Vocational  Guidance  for  the  Professions 

Supposing  that  after  years  of  training  and' trying  out,' 
some  essential  element  fails  to  reach  its  proper  level, 
what  useful  work  is  there   to  be  done  for  which  the. 
equipment  will  be  adequate  ? 

Does  it  seem  too  great  a  demand  on  boys  and  girls 
that    they   should   thus   analyze   themselves   and    their, 
labors?    This  also  is  a  test  of  vocational  fitness.     People 
who  cannot  do  this  sort  of  thing  are  not  fitted  for  the 
professions. 


THE   INDEX 


Acting,  13,  177-179 
Adams  family,  51 
Adams,  John  Quincy,  54 
Adams,  Samuel,  52 
Administrative  capacity,  201 
Adventure,  opportunities  for: 

in  engineering,  143 

in  nursing,  120 

in  the  ministry,  79 
Agassiz,  Louis,  22,  27,  loi,  137, 

Age: 

for  choosing  a  profession,  29 
significance    of,    in    profes- 
sions, 77 
Agriculture,  153-162 

an    all-round    profession, 

154-155 
as  basis  of  professions,  53 
professional  ability  in,  155 
science  in,  127-129 

Alcott,  Louisa  M.,  26,  169,  170 

Alembert,  Jean  d',  69 

American   Genetic   Association, 
146 

American  Medical  Association, 
no 

American  Mining  Congress,  130 

American    Society    of    Agricul- 
tural Engineers,  146 

American  Telephone  Company, 
132 

Art:  See  Fine  arts 

Artistic  ability,  outlets  for,   165 
temperament,  165 
types,    163-165,    177-187 

Athletic  types  in  professions: 
in  engineering,  143 
in  public  speaking,  192,  193 
in  teaching,  192 
in  the  ministry,  82,  142 

Attention,  93 

concentrated  type  of,  93 
diffused  type,  93,  94,  156 


Authors : 

by-employment  of,  169 
rewards  of,   1 69-1 71 
training  for,    169,    170 


B 


Bach  family,  49 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  76 

Bennett,  Arnold,  152 

Biological  control,   1 89-191 

Biological  survey,  124 

Bolton,  Charles  Knowles,   174 

"Bookishness,"  46 

Borrow,  George,  82 

Boy  Scouts: 

and  the  minister,  87 
and  the  musician,  186 
and  the  teacher,  95 

Brains  a  prerequisite  in  the  pro- 
fessions, 42,  48,  69,   181, 

194.  197 
British  Civil   Service,   proposed 

credits  by,  49 
Brooks,  Bishop,  92 
Burbank,  Luther,  129,  131,  190 
Burr,  Aaron,  51 
Business: 

capacity  for,  in  teaching,  98 

lawyers  in,  65 

relation   of   engineering   to, 

145 

relation  of,  to  law,  65 
rewards  of,   in   comparison 
with  those  of  professions, 

63 

type,   18 


"Call": 

in  the  ministry,  86-87 
to  professions.  26-29 


205 


206 


The  Index 


Calvin,  John,  48 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  48 
Carnegie,  Andrew,  130 
Carnegie  Foundation,  no 
Carnegie  Institution,  129 
Cartwright,  Peter,  83 
Chemical  engineering,  149 

in  agriculture,  153 
Chemical  science : 

in  industry,  132-134 
Chief  justice,  earnings  of,  63 
Civil  Service  Commission: 

British,     proposed     credits 

by,  49 
government    bureaus    con- 
trolled by,  125 
Class  standing,  as  test  for  pro- 
fessional life,  43 
Clergymen : 

as  administrators,  79 
eflficiency  required  of,  77 
objective  of,  72 
physical  vigor  required  by, 

142 
See  also  Ministry 
Cleveland,  Grover,  50,  51 
College  presidents: 

business  capacity  of,   98 
women  as,  100 
Color,  thinking  in,  165 
Competition  in  the  professions, 

37 
Concentrated  attention,  93 
Cost  of  training  for  professions, 
36,  37,  107 


D 


Dana,  Charles  A.,  167 
Darwin,  Charles  Robert,  27,  I'li, 

48,  138 
De  Morgan,  Augustus,  169 
Dentistry,  1 20-1 21 
Dentists,  qualifications  necessary 

for,  120 
Diflfused-interest  types,  93,  94, 

156 
Dupont  Company,  132 


Earnings : 

in  dentistry,  120 

in   engineering   and   inven- 
tion, 150 

in  fine  arts,  179 

in  law,  61-63 

in  medicine,  112-113 

in  ministry,  75-76 

in  nursing,  118 

in  teaching,  95-96,  100 

in  writing,  167 

professional,  21 

relation  between,  and  pro- 
fessional eminence,   22 
Eastman  Kodak  Company,  132 
Eddy,  Clarence,  185 
Edison,  Thomas,  26,  140,  142 
Edwards,  Jonathan,  51 
Eliot,  George,  48 
Energy,  a  professional  qualifica- 
tion, 44-45 
Engineer: 

accuracy  required  of,  32 

all-round  ability  of,  144 

objective  of  the,  72 

physical  type  for,  143,   192 
Engineering:  140-152 

achievements  in,  149 

and  invention,  140-152 

branches  of,  146 

capacity  for  leadership  nec- 
essary in,  144 

opportunities  in,  151-152 

originality  of  mind  required 
in,  144 

professional  ability  for,  151 

relation  of  farming  to,   153 

relation  of,  to  science,   141 

relationship  of,  to  business 
ability,  144-145 

training  for,  146 


Families,     professional,     signifi- 
cance of,  53 
"Family  job,"  49 
Family  tree,  fruit  of  the,  49-56 


The  Index 


201 


Farmer: 

present-day    conditions    in 
life  of,  1 61-162 

the  all-round  man,  154-155 

type  for,  155-158 
Fanning : 

opportunities  for  education 
in,  158 

rewards  in,  158-159 

various    professions    prac- 
ticed in,  154 

vocations  specialized  from, 

53 
Fiction,  opportunities  m  wntmg, 

167 
Fine  arts,  177-187 

opportunities  in,  179-181 
professional  ability  in,  181 
rewards  in,  179,  181,   187 
superficial  ability  in,   181 
uncertainty   of   success   in, 

177 

"useful"  side  of,  186 

women  in,   179 
Forbes,  Edward,  49 

family,  51 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  12,  139 
French,  Daniel  C,  180 


General  Electric  Company,  132 

"Genius,"  what  it  is,  165 

Godkin,  Edwin  Lawrence,  167, 
168 

Gorgas,  William  C,  23 

Government  positions,  draw- 
backs in,  125 

Grant,  Ulysses  S.,  51 

Graphic  arts,  cultivation  of,  179, 
186 

Greek,  class  standing  in,  as  test 
of  fitness  for  professions, 

43 
Greeley,  Horace,  167 
Grenfell,  Dr.  Wilfred  T,,  82,  84 

H 

Harvard  University,  134 


Health,  element  of,  in  profes- 
sions, 48 

Henry,  O.,  171 

Heredity,  force  of,  49,  53,  189, 
191,  198,  199 

High  school,  testing  out  for  pro- 
fessions in,  29,  136 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  27,  106 

Huxley,  Thomas,  27,  101 


Incomes,    comparative,    in    the 
professions,  21.     See  also 
Earnings;  Rewards 
Independence,  of  character,  re- 
quisite    for     professions, 
46-48 
Industrial  science,  economic  im- 
portance of,    129,    134 
Industry : 

chemical  science  in,  132-134 

most  ancient,  154 

science   in,    129,    130,    152, 

154 
Intellect,  necessity  for  keenness 

of,     in     professions,     48. 

See  also  Brains 
Introspection,  41-48,  55 
Invention,  relation  of,  to  science, 

'41 
Inventors,     qualifications     for, 

141,  142 


Jordan,  David  Starr,  90 
Journalism  and  literature,  163- 

176 
Journalists : 

non-professional,  165 

professional,  166 
Judgment,  independence  of,  46 


Kelvin,  Lord,  141 
King,  Clarence,  122 
Kipling,  Rudyard,  171,  172 
Kreisler,  Fritz,  16 


208 


The  Index 


Laboratories: 

diagnostic,  ill 
industrial,  132-I35 
medical  research,  1 1 1 
research,  need  of,  135 

Latia,  class  standing  in,  as  test 
for  professional  life,  43 

Lavoisier,  Antoine,  138 

Law:  59-74 

and  business,  65 
leadership  in,  83,  93 
native  ability  for,  69 
objective  of,  72 
overcrowding  of,  66 
qualifications  for,  68-72,107 
rewards  in,  61-67 
specialized  departments  of, 

59-61 
success  of  capable  men  in, 

67 

training  for,  67-69 

women  in,  73-74 
Lawyer: 

class  test  for,  70-72 

country,  60 

responsibility  of,  34 

specialists,  59-61 

type  for,  73,  107 
Leadership,  capacity  for,  72,  83, 

93,  107,  144,  203 
Librarians : 

field  for,  175 

qualifications  for,  173 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  58 
Literary  research,  176 
Literature  and  journalism,  163- 

176 
Livingstone,  David,  82 
London,  Jack,  171 
Lowell,  Abbott  Lawrence,  20 
Lubbock,  John,  138 

M 

Macaulay,  Thomas,  43,  69 
Manual  skill,  rewards  for,  200 
Massachusetts       Institute       of 
Technology,   training  in, 

134 
McCormick,  Cyrus,  150 


Medical  colleges,  number  of,  of 
recognized  standing,   no 
Medical  group,  101-121 

rewards  of,  112,  113 

women  in,  114 

See  also  Physicians;  Medical 
students 
Medical  students: 

class  standing  of,   102,   103 

requirements   of,    105,    108 

training  for,  107 
Mellon  Institute,  133 
Memory,  103-105 
Mendel,  Gregor,  27 
Mentality: 

ear-minded  type  of,  104,  165 

eye-minded    type    of,    104- 
107,  165 

muscle-minded  type  of,  165 
Mill,  John  Stuart,  43,  69 
Milton,  John,  22 
Ministry: 

adventure  in,  79 

age  in,  77 

attractions  of,  79,  81 

"call,"  86-87 

capacity  for  leadership  in, 

83-85 

drawbacks  in,  78 

duration  of  pastorates,  78 

native  ability  for,  81 

physical  type  for  the,   82, 
142,  192 

preparation  for,  77,  81 

rewards  in,  77-81 

women  in,  87-88 
Missionaries,  76,  79 
Munsterberg,  Hugo,  195 
Muscle,  thinking  in,  165 
Music: 

field  in,  182-183,  184-186 

rewards  in,  179 

training  in,  177,  186 

N  " 

National  Astronomical  Observ- 
atory, 124 
National   Canners'   Association, 

134 


The  Index 


?0Q 


National  Museum,  124 
Native  ability: 

for  professions,  39,  55 
for  the  ministry,  81 
in  law,  69 
in  teaching,  98 

Newspaper  reporting,  165-166 
space  writers,  166 

Newton,  Isaac,  139 

Nurses: 

Red  Cross,  117,  120 
requirements  of,    116,    117, 

201 
training  for,  117 

Nursing,  1 14-120,  201 
adventure  in,   120 
and  housekeeping,  114 
preparation  for,  117 
rewards  in,  1 18-120 


Cratory,  lack  of  power  of,  in 
visualizing  type,    107 

Originality,  requirement  of,  136, 
144 


Paderewski,  Ignace,  16,  17 

Paine,  Robert  Treat,  51 

Palmer,  Alice  Freeman,  99,  100 

Parkman,  Francis,  48 

Pasteur,  Louis,  127 

Physical  vigor  in  the  professions: 
See  Athletic  types 

Physicians : 

capacity  for  leadership  in, 

107 
city.  III 
country,  112 
number  of,  110 
objective  of,  72 
opportunities  for,  in,  113 
power    of    observation    re- 
quired in,  103,  104,  105 
preparation  of,   107-111 
qualities  demanded  of,   107 
responsibility  of,  34 
rewards  of,  112,  113 
scientific  elements  in,  loi 


specializing  by,  in 

state  requirements  of,  108- 

109 
type  of,  102,  104 
visual  memor}'  of,  103-105 
Preparation  for  professional  life: 
See    the    various    profes- 
sions 
Presidents,  families  producing, 

51 
Priestley,  Joseph,  27,  138 
Professional  fitness,  42,  188-199 
level,   determination  of,    19 
qualities,  200-204 
responsibility,  32-34 
Professions : 

and  business,  13,  18 
and  non-professions,  draw- 
ing    the     line     between, 
13-16 
capacity  for  business  in,  18 
characteristics  of,  15 
evolution  of,  188 
exactions  of,  24 
native  ability  for,  39,  55 
overcrowding  in,  36-37 
preparation     for,     see     the 

various  professions 
promotion  in,  15 
prototypes  of,  in  trades,  17 
qualities  for,  98,   103,   144, 
151,    155,   161,    181,    197, 
201 
responsibility  in,  32-34 
rewards  in,  15,  16,  21-25,  37 
time  for  choice  of,  29 


Qualifications : 

for  artists,  1 65-1 81 

for  dentists,  120 

for  engineers,  143-145 

for  farmers,  153,  156 

for  lawyers,  68-72,  107,  192 

for  librarians,  175 

for  ministers,  77,  82,  85,  142 

for  nurses,  115 

for  physicians,  101-107 

for  scientists,  136 

for  teachers,  89-100 


210 


The  Index 


Quantitative  element,  impor- 
tance of,  in  professional 
fitness,  202 


Ramsay,  Sir  William,  149 
Red  Cross,  117,  120 
Research: 

government,  126 

industrial,  132-135 

institutions  for,  129 

literary,  176 

medical,  1 1 1 

scientific,  123 
Rewards : 

general,  of  the  professions, 
21-24 

non-material,  79,  119 

of  agriculture,  158 

of  art,  179 

of  engineering,  151 

of  fiction  writing,  167 

of  law,  61 

of  manual  skill,  200 

of   medical    profession,    21, 
112,  113 

of  ministry,  75 

of  missionaries,  76 

of  nursing,  118 

of  science,  123 

of  teaching,  100 
Rockefeller  Institute  for  Medi- 
cal Research,  129 
Roosevelt,  Theodore,  40 
Ruskin,  John,  105 


Scholarship: 

in  art,  181 
in  law,  71 

in  medicine,  102,  103,  203 
in  science,  135-136 
Science : 

government  work  in,    123- 

125 

in  the  industries,  129,  130, 

152,  154 
on  the  farm,  153 
Scientific  group,  123-139 


Scientific     research,      national, 

126 
Scientific  types,  136,  142 
Scientist,  objective  of  the,  72 
Self-analysis,  duty  of,  39,  41-48, 

Seton,  Ernest  Thompson,  128 
Shakespeare,  William,  22 
Singers,  180,  181 
Smeaton,  John,  146 
Smithsonian  Institute,  124 
Social  qualities,  in  the   profes- 
sions, 73,  85,  203 
Social  service,  for  women,  88 
Sound,  thinking  in,  165 
Specialists,  medical,  fees  of,  113 
SpeciaUzed     professions,      113, 
117,    146,    148,    154,    184 
Stephenson,  George,  146 
Stevenson,  Robert  Louis,  47,  48, 

169 
Stuck,   Archdeacon  Franz  von, 

82 
Surroundings,  early  influence  of, 

55 


Talent: 

amount  of,  required  in  pro- 
fessions, 19 

for  writing,  171 
Teachers : 

college,  97 

common  school,  95 

hard  work  required  of,  32 

high  school,  97 

judgment  required  of,  34 

proportion   of   women  and 
men,  98 

responsibility  in,  32 

various  groups  of,  95-98 
Teaching : 

concentrated  type  of  atten- 
tion in,  93 

difTused   type  of  attention 

in.  93 
natural  ability  in,  98 

rewards  in,  91,  95^98 
temperament  required  in,  94 
women  in,  98-100 


The  Index 


211 


Temperament,    19,   45,   82,   94, 

165,  195-196 
Trades : 

professional  elements  in,  14 
professional  prototypes  in, 
17 


Visualizing  type,  oratory  want- 
ing in,  107 

Vocational  fitness,  test  of,  202- 
204 

Vocational  guidance,  biology, 
197 


Unit  characters: 

control  of,  197 

doctrine  of,  189 

finding,  by  analysis,  197 

inborn,  191 

in  professional  fitness,  188- 

199 
prohibitive,  196 
vocational     guidance     and, 
191,  197 
United  States  Bureau  of  Fish- 
eries,  126 
United  States  Bureau  of  Mines, 

126 
United  States  Bureau  of  Stand- 
ards, 126 
United    States    Department    of 
Agriculture,      experiment 
stations  of,   160,   191 
United   States   Geological   Sur- 
vey, 124 
United  States  Steel  Corporation, 
132 


W 

Wagner,  Richard,  48 
"Warren,  William,  178 
Webster,  Daniel,  63,  64 
Westinghouse,  George,  141,  150 
Whitney,  Josiah  and  William,  27 
Women : 

as  nurses,  114 

as  teachers,  98,  100 

in  dentistry,  120 

in  fine  arts,  179 

in  law,  73 

in  medicine,  1 14 

in  ministry,  87 

in  professions,  98 
Words,  thinking  in,  165 
Writing : 

for  magazines,  167 

for  newspapers,  166 

for  publishers,  166 

novels,  167,  169 

training  for,  1 69-1 71 


Virchow,  Rudolph,  loi 
Visualization : 

dependence  of,  on  observa- 
tion, 104 
organ  controlling,  105 
professions  requiring,  104 


Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, 75 

type  of  ministers  for  work 
in,  87 


VOCATIONAL  BOOKS 

Under  the  Editorship  of  J.  ADAMS  PUFFER.   Teacher.   Writer.  Lecturer 

A  timely  series  for  use  in  the  public 
schools  that  gives  the  child  a  definite  aim 
in  life  and  trains  him  to  useful  citizenship 

A  Vocational  Reader.     By  Park  Pressey. 

Stories  of  practical  achievement  at  home,  on  the  farm,  in  the 
fields  of  science,  business,  industry,  so  tense  with  interest  and 
adventure  that  the  teacher  responds  instinctively  to  the  influence. 
With  such  a  choice  of  calUngs  before  him,  he  cannot  but  consider 
his  own  future. 

Illustrated  with  many  half  tones 

Cloth.      Price,  75  cents 

Vocational  Guidance.     By  J.  Adams  Puffer. 

As  a  counsellor  for  the  teacher  we  know  of  no  book  +hat 
approaches  it  for  practical  information  on  how  to  place  the  cnild 
in  his  life  work,  and  how  to  guide  him  toward  success. 

"  One  of  the  most  remarkable  books,"  writes  Eugene  Davenport, 
College  of  Agriculture,  University  of  IlHnois.  "It  ought  to  be  in 
the  hands  of  every  parent  and  teacher,  and  of  every  child  who  has 
reached  vocational  consciousness." 

Illustrated  with  many  half  tones  / 

Cloth.     Price,  $1.25      A    '^  \ 

Vocational    Training    for    Girls.     By    Mar- 
guerite Stockman  Dickson. 

[In  preparation] 
Write  jor  Descriptive  Matter 

RAND   McNALLY  &   COMPANY 
CHICAGO  NEW  YORK 


S 1  ir"  ^  ^ 


ic  nriii  J  hv//^ 


"'Oll3'Mi'll 


\.m^' 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


,\^^ 


AA    000  711  254    3 


§^' 


^^ 


^' 


iiiiiii:: 


